The Knight
by lanita19
Summary: After a falling out, Rikku denounces her friends, family, and the entire Al Bhed race to find her identity only to be brought back to the man who stole her heart so long ago. RikkuxGippal. Rated for a lemony chapter, language, and violence.
1. Capricorn A Brand New Name

Author's Note:

To all my loyal 'Matters of Blood' fans: Don't worry, that's still going.  
Welcome to my newest fic, I hope you enjoy it. I also recommend finding a Al Bhed/English translator (.com/) because this is a RikkuxGippal fic, so there's gonna be a lot of Al Bhed. Also, I _hate_ Yuna with all of my black little heart. So if sometimes she seems out of character, I'm sorry. I tried my best to provide explanations this chapter...but seriously, I hate her.

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**_So I run and hide and tear myself up__  
Start again with a brand new name  
And eyes that see into infinity_**

Through binoculars and night's shadows, the sands of Bikanel Desert didn't seem too bad to Rikku. Only two years after the defeat of Vegnagun, Home, the heart of Al Bhed society, was finally rebuilt. It came as no surprise to the young blonde run away. It had been her father's dream from the moment it was destroyed. Rikku could still feel her father's calloused arms wrapped around her on the deck of his salvaged airship. "Don't worry, kid. The Al Bhed are proud people and the most technological minds of Spira. With our knowledge of machina and Sin gone, we got no trouble rebuilding our _rusa_ (home)."

And blanketed in desert stars sat that vision. Rikku's small airship was perched high in the dunes, giving her the perfect view. Though the days were shrouded in white hot rays, the night brought on a terrible chill. Rikku's golden bare abdomen felt at home pressed in the sand. The pocket sized machina in her hands had a familiar feel. Even after she denounced her people, Rikku could not cover her heritage. The long dandelion hair, the estranged attire including a yellow bikini with a green mini skirt and a long gradient colored scarf, her spiral pupils, bronze complexion, and airship behind her were all proof off her lineage.

Miles below, in the heart of the newly rebuilt city, her father, weary with fatigue from a restless life, was struggling to a podium. His son, or Brother as Rikku called him, stood alongside their father in his usual overalls. His tattoos were exposed as always and his hair was still a sliver of a mohawk. To his left, Buddy, a lifetime friend to all Al Bhed after his accomplishments with the Gullwings. Buddy remained unchanged as well. He dressed the part of an Al Bhed, but underneath, his dark skin suggested other heritage. Shinra accompanied the pair as well. With the exception of the girls, it was a full scale Gullwings reunion. Shinra had grown much taller and had taken on the features of a man since Rikku last saw him. He was sprouting up to be the spitting image of her Brother, tattoos and all. Shinra had traded in his full suit for a pair of overalls that accented where puberty had come in. Other notable Al Bhed also attended the speech. She recognized Rin the famous entrepreneur and Nhadala and Benzo from her days of digging.

Hordes of Al Bhed people were lined up in their goggles and scarves, gloves and boots to see the famous leader speak. It was a spectacle. With Sin gone, the Al Bhed were free to embrace their love for machina. The stage was lit completely with blue light from tiny flying machina, hovering around shooting beams of light. The sound equipment, machina. The stage, machina. Rikku never thought she would see the day.

"_So baubma_ (My people)," her father, Cid, began, "we have overcome." His voice was stern and professional, nothing like the man who raised the full grown woman. "Though Spira had cast out our brilliance in fear of Sin, though renegade Guados destroyed our home, we have overcome."

_Get to the point, Pops, I haven't got-_ Rikku stopped her inner monologue short when she caught sight of the face that defined the life she left behind. The years had changed everyone and he was no exception. Gippal, the Al Bhed youth who battled Rikku in vivaciousness, stood prostrate next to her father like a statue. His good eye focused on the people, _his_ people. This wasn't the man she could find romping around the sand shirtless and covered in machine grease. It wasn't even the man she could find tinkering in Djose with his toys. Gippal had a stern face now. Still a golden Adonis with hard muscles and windswept hair, Gippal was every desert girl's wet dream, Rikku included. But past played too big a part to keep her from drooling over the grease monkey. Gippal's pale pink lips were pursed tight as he now paced from side to side, the same motions he usually went through before public speaking. At least one thing hadn't changed.

Rikku had gotten so lost in her gazing that she almost missed a pivotal moment in Al Bhed history. "And though I would have liked to hand the legacy of the Al Bhed people onto my only daughter, Rikku, or Brother who helped destroy Sin and Vegnagun, I instead leave it to my protégé and friend, Gippal."

The crowds cheered, the women swooned, and Rikku felt her stomach drop. Sure the boy was good with a wrench, but with an entire race of people?

Gippal waved humbly at the crowd with a half smile. _Ham it up, Gippal, we all know you wanna_, Rikku thought. "_So bauma_, it is with great honor that I take the position as _meuh_ of the Al Bhed people." That word, _meuh_, hadn't been used to describe a leader since Rikku was very young and her father was in the army. It was Al Bhed for lion, a word she would never use to describe Gippal. "And tonight, to honor our former _meuh_ and irreplaceable _vydran_ (father), Cid, I present to you this…" a holographic curtain faded in a shimmer, revealing a giant building. Its architect was unmistakably Al Bhed with its exposed gears and geometric shapes. "After years of digging in the Bikanel desert, we've found some pretty cool stuff." His professional persona was wavering slightly. "And with our new and first museum _Kas uv dra Tacand_ (Jewel of the Desert), we finally have the means to commemorate all that we've found."

Rikku rolled her eyes and thought about the last time Gippal called something…or rather _someone_ his _kas uv dra tacand._

**_I will disappear  
I told you once and I'll say it again  
I want my message read clear  
I'll show you the way, the way I'm going_**

"Where are we going?" Rikku called to Gippal who was far ahead of her. Rikku was used to the feel of sand weighing down her boots, but she never had to run this far and this late.

After almost two miles of exploring the dunes in the cold desert night, Gippal came to a halt atop of _Unbryh_. The Al Bhed's ancestors once named all the dunes in Bikanel and it was customary to memorize them to keep from getting lost. Unbryh was the dune that children were never to visit due to the large amounts of fiends that occasionally hunted in that area. When Rikku met Gippal at the top, she understood why.

Below them, a glistening abyss of pyrflies lit up Unbryh. "The Yevonites can have their Moonflow," Gippal stated. "Sit with me, Cid's girl." He patted her on the head like a dog. She groaned in disapproval. "I gotta tell ya something."

"And you had to take me here?" she questioned.

"I wanted us to this place together before I left."

"_Left_?"

"Yeah," Gippal said with chagrin in his voice. "Rikku…there's no sugarcoated way to put this so…here I go…I know what your dad's planning and while I think it's noble, there are other ways to save the summoners."

Rikku blushed wildly, hoping he wouldn't notice, but the light the pyrflies gave off gave her away. "What are you talking about?"

He could see through her act easily. "Summoners have been disappearing left and right, and at the heart of it, an Al Bhed. I'm not stupid."

"You don't understand!" Rikku burst. "My cousin is a summoner. Her life means something to me. Just because the Yevonites find the summoners disposable doesn't mean I have to."

Gippal brushed some of the sand into the hole, causing the pyrflies to scatter a little before returning to their normal frenzy. "So these soldiers came through about a week ago scouting candidates for this thing called the Crimson Squad. We're gonna go fight Sin."

"_We_? So you've already decided." Gippal nodded, gaining a scoff from his companion. "I thought that was what the Crusaders were for."

"I just need for you to be happy for me," he said while falling back into the sad. "It's not every day a nobody from the desert gets picked to be an elite soldier. I will bring great fame to our people."

Rikku stood to exit. It was the same thing her father said when he started salvaging machine from the ocean floor. All Al Bhed men cared about anymore was restoring glory to their fallen people. "Then go. Make yourself a warrior. Prove to Spira that the Al Bhed is something to be reckoned with. Then come home and my father will promote you to be his _caluht_ (the word for _second_, as in second in command). Then the people will elect you grand_ meuh_ of all the desert and you can be the overlord of sand."

Gippal caught her ankle with one hand and tugged her down. If he were careless, she could have ended up at the bottom of the pit, but Gippal calculated her fall perfectly. She landed flatly across his torso, face in the sand. "What do you have against your own people?"

"Can't we just be happy with what we have?" she mumbled into the sand.

"Not when there's a chance for something greater."

Gippal let out an 'oomf,' as Rikku rolled over onto her back, planting her belt back firmly into his groin. "I'm sorry. Whatever you do, pops and I are still proud of you."

"You too, really?" he wheezed.

"_Naymmo_!( Really!)" Rikku sighed deeply into the night air. A cloud of mist from her breath dispersed into the jumble of pyrflies. "You know, I'm not gonna be the same girl when you see me again."

Gippal tried frantically to relieve the weight that Rikku had pressed against his crotch to no avail. He finally gave up, distracted by her last comment. "When I get back you're still gonna be five foot nothing, lanky, and covered in grease. Next time you see me, I'm gonna be _meuh_."

Rikku lifted herself up, putting more weight on Gippal's pain. "Whatever. I have plans too, you know."

Gippal playfully put a hand on her cheek and stroked it gently. Though they fought constantly like teenagers did, there were bonded tightly through their friendship. They had seen each other cry. They had seen each other laugh. As children, everyday was their tiny adventure. Time and time again an emerging adult would break past their inner child. Gippal's small sign of affection reminded Rikku that soon Gippal would be a man and would be in search of a woman, while she still felt like she would be a girl forever. "_Oui yna dra kaz uv dra tacand_, Rikku.(You're the jewel of the desert, Rikku.) I know you'll do great things while I'm away."

**_So I run and hide and tear myself up  
Start again with a brand new name  
And eyes that see into infinity_**

As the procession came to an end, following an extravagant performance from Spira's favorite pop star and twice savior, Yuna, Gippal met in his new office with his mentor and friends. They were having a few drinks together before heading their separate ways. With the exception of Rikku, everyone Gippal cared about was in his office huddled together with tiny glasses of tequila. Bikanel did have a great supply of cactus.

The tequila was a less intense blend. The Al Bhed called it _dnayd_, for treat because it was to be sipped after dinner, though Gippal and Cid had been known to shoot down the harder stuff after long days of diplomacy. The Al Bhed were trying to get on better terms with the Guado who were dying out slowly. The Guado sought to understand the ways of the Al Bhed who had managed to salvage their dying race and keep a solid and pure bloodline.

"So, _meuh_, what's your first order of business?" Nooj joked. His date, the lively Leblanc, toyed with his ponytail as the crippled meyvn leaned on his cane.

Gippal nonchalantly ran a hand through his hair while swigging back his last bit of _dnayd_. "Tomorrow I'm handing over the Machine Faction to Brother." Everyone had a shocked expression. The Machine Faction was Gippal's baby and life's work. Handing it over to Brother was like handing over your fine china to an infant. "What? Just because he's a little airheaded doesn't mean he's not familiar with machina."

"Rikku would have been a better candidate," Paine mumbled through a sip. The gang shot an evil glare at Paine for referencing their excomrade. Speaking her name was all but forbidden since the day she denounced her friends, her family, and the entire Al Bhed race.

**_I was almost there  
Just a moment away from becoming unclear  
Ever get the feeling you're gone?  
I'll show you the way  
The way I'm going_**

Nooj, Baralai, and Gippal were gathered around a bar in Luca after their big speech. Vegnagun had been defeated and Yuna had been reunited with her former love, Tidus. After a few rounds, the three had been considerably drunk, even Praetor of New Yevon, Baralai was a little on the hammered side. They were chatting wildly about their future plans. "I think my first order of business will be to tell all those damn monks to take the sticks out of their butts!" Baralai shouted with a slur. The group noted his use of butt rather than ass, implying he wasn't completely drunk yet.

Gippal laughed and slapped Nooj on the back. "What about you, _Noojie_? You thinking 'bout going anywhere with that lady of yours?"

Nooj blushed at the mention of Leblanc. She could be a little obsessive at times, but she stood by him faithfully and at the least, he owed her a date or two. "What about you? Anything we should know about you and a certain dame from the desert?" Nooj asked in rebuttal. His glasses hung lopsided across his face.

As fate would have it. The aforementioned _dame from the desert_ had been present. Feeling a little down about not being mentioned the entire speech, she drug herself to a bar where she could unload her distress on a drunken stranger and a whole bowl of cherries. Ever since the day she met Yuna, she had lived in her shadows. Yuna was the grand summoner who saved Spira twice and went on to become a pop sensation. Was there anything the girl couldn't do? It angered Rikku to no end that people brushed her off like a side note. She wondered if one day someone would write down the tale of the grand pilgrimage and Rikku would simply be a reference at the end confirming that she had indeed been a part of it. The entire pilgrimage to Zanarkand, Rikku had to remain bubbly to make up for everyone's grieving over Yuna's upcoming death. No one took the time to assess Rikku's feelings after seeing her home blown up. No one thanked her for going against Yevon's wishes and becoming the first Al Bhed guardian.

The second mission to save the world, she had to listen to Yuna's daily sulking over her beloved Tidus. Yuna had signed them up to go digging in the desert to help her childhood rival build a giant weapon. Rikku was getting a little tired of being walked on without any reverence to her wellbeing. The one person she thought was finally starting to come around and appreciate her, Gippal, waved off her contributions like a fly during his public speech about Spira's newly acquired peace. She wanted to rip the microphone from his hand and scream: You're welcome, Spira.

After a good deal of cherries and conversation with sleeping hobos, Rikku's ears perked up when she heard a drunken Gippal mention her name. "You mean Rikku? Cid's girl? You gotta be kiddin' me! I mean sure, great body, but she's got a mind like a fish tank…not a lot going on up there!" The other men nodded and laughed. "Did I ever tell ya that Cid actually wanted me to marry her? Get this, the old man pulls me aside one day and says: Son, the kid's got a good heart and a lotta drive, she just needs your direction.'" His impression of her father was immaculate, but in no way flattering.

**_So I run and hide and tear myself up  
Start again with a brand new name  
And eyes that see into infinity_**

Following the incident in the bar, Rikku proceeded to start her life anew. She began by writing long letters to each of her old friends, all with a very 'fuck you' message to them. She told her father to basically take his desert and his proud people and shove them where the sun didn't shine. She accused Yuna of being a stuck up whiney princess and hoped she had a wonderful life with her zombie boyfriend. She told Paine to change her tampon and try smiling once in a while. Lastly, she told Gippal that he was an arrogant, know-it-all, womanizing prick and if she ever ran into him on the street she would kick his ass.

It was all downhill from there. Rikku stole a mini airship from her father and went out to see the world on her own terms.

Since that day, the friends did not feel comfortable mentioning Rikku, especially not around Cid, who mourned the disappearance of his only daughter, and Gippal, who did really still love his childhood friend.

Paine's comment caused an awkward silence to fall over the room. "I'm just gonna say it," Paine began, breaking the silence, "has anyone even heard from her in the last two years?"

Everyone either shook their head or answered in the negative. "Do you think she's even alive?" Yuna asked.

"Don't even _think_ that," Gippal snapped.

Yuna added, "I'm just saying, Rikku has been known to be a little…absentminded. Self-sufficiency isn't really her thing."

He tried to force a laugh, but Gippal had been more than a little worried and shocked that she hadn't come about in two years. "I'm sure she's fine and soon she'll level out and come back to us."

"Do we even want her to come back?" Yuna asked, prodding further Gippal's frustration. "She said some pretty nasty stuff when she left. Besides, she wasn't really a grand asset to any of us."

Paine was shocked at Yuna's callousness. It had been developing since the day she found a sphere with the man who looked like Tidus, Shuyin. Yuna hadn't been too great of a friend. The only thing that mattered was Tidus, causing her to treat her friends like second rate nothings. Paine wanted badly to slap the ex-summoner, but knew it would solve nothing. Instead she stated, "Rikku was there every battle you brought on, every dungeon you drug us into, and every argument you put us in the middle of. You wouldn't be standing next to Tidus right now if she wouldn't have allowed to you to come aboard her airship."

Tidus had been silent the whole night. It was weird for him think that Rikku could get mad at anyone. Ever since the day he met her, she had been nothing but a true friend to him. He wanted badly to defend her honor, but didn't know the new Rikku well enough to support any claims. Instead he fell back and waited for the girls to end their argument. "No one asked her to come along. Every day I had to put up with that high pitched sniveling sound. I say good riddance."

**_I will disappear_**_  
-30 Seconds to Mars_


	2. The Runaways

Hey everyone! If you _just_ read this, I apologize for all the spelling and grammatical errors. I submitted it pretty late. Anyways, it's all fixed up and the next one will be on the way as soon as I finish the next chapter of my other fic, Matters of Blood (read it if you like Trinity Blood). Anyways, reviews would be nice.

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**_Come closer now  
I know your desire is to be desired  
Steal a kiss yet and call us friends  
Distance is the thief in which you conspire_**

Rikku set out for her mission. While a part of her genuinely wanted to see the fall of the Al Bhed people when her father handed over the position of leader over to an arrogant, womanizing, asshole, she was a thief at heart still. Her plan had been a tad childish and completely illegal, but a little fun never hurt anyone. If _Kas uv dra Tacand_ commemorated the finds in the Bikanel Desert Excavation Project, that meant there were spheres, irreplaceable spheres documenting the blood, sweat, and tears that went into recovering Al Bhed's past. What better way to honor her new _meuh_ than with something to remember her by? Rikku knew that some of those spheres were bound to have images of the Gullwings battling Angra Mainyu or helping rebuild Cactuar Nation. Rikku was more than happy to switch the priceless spheres out with some of her own. She'd gathered embarrassing spheres of Yuna drunk at after parties, some of her dad's senile ramblings, and just a few of herself monologuing about how pathetic Spira had become. Juvenile? Yes. Just desserts for the way she had been treated? Definitely.

The lock at the front of _Kas uv dra Tacand_ was simple enough to figure out. The Al Bhed were never clever with their locking mechanisms. They believed in using machina for everything, and that was their downfall. Occasionally, machina was a good line of defense if it was against a Yevonite who didn't know how to handle it. But any Al Bhed with half a brain could take apart a machina lock. However, the Al Bhed rarely suspected one of their own of mutiny.

_All I need to do is a little shaky, shaky_, Rikku thought while twisting out one of the wires. YAT-99's, YAT-97's, YKT-11's, YKT-63's were no problem for the nimble thief. She'd run into all of them, and taken them apart piece by itty bitty piece. The lock was no problem. Hell, Vegnagun was a machina, and she dismantled him like a lawn mower.

The museum was dark to her surprise. _No security guards? Gippal, you're making this too easy_. Rikku pulled her night vision goggles from the back slung over her shoulder. Suddenly, things became clear. Gippal had put his heart and soul into creating something the Al Bhed could be proud of. The walls were made of densely packed cactuar sand, a grain of sand native to the Cactuar Nation, famous for being 10% gold and heavy enough to stay put during a sandstorm. The Al Bhed crest had been etched into the walls with a delicate needle and filled with a purple ink. Of course, machinas were still a familiar face inside the _Kas uv dra Tacand_. The floor used the same machina that Rikku first saw in Guadosalem. Seymour had used to show her ancient Zanarkand. The floor spun images of Home before it had been destroyed. It tied together nicely with the theme of something old and something new.

On display were old machina, primitive grenades, cactuar tombs, and ancient Al Bhed primers. A nostalgic thought passed quickly over Rikku before being swept aside by a sign that read: _The Bikanel Sphere Diary_. The long row of spheres stretched from wall to wall over a holographic timeline. The machina used a laser projection screen to replay the sphere on top of a small holographic read-along cube. Rikku would have loved to change the wording on the cubes from: _Our former leader, Meuh Cid_ to _A big ol' asshole_. But her prank was just as good.

"Let's see," she began. Her gloved hand dug around her satchel for her first replacement sphere. It was her favorite embarrassing video of Brother, Mr. Big-Shot-Head-Of-Machine-Faction. Brother had been ironing a pair of pants when the phone rang. Two minutes later he was applying burn cream across his singed face. "Where to put you? Somewhere right in the middle." She clicked on the sphere closest to her left hand.

Displayed before her was an image of her father the day he excavated the Highwind. The cube read: _A glorious day in Al Bhed discovery. Caked in century old sand, the Highwind emerges like a phoenix._ Cid was waving in front of the camera with the ship taking up the background. All the members of the excavation team were standing in front of or on the Highwind. Brother was giving the thumbs up. Nhadala was leaned against the wheel base. Inside the large turbine engine sat a teenage couple sneaking a kiss.

Rikku replayed it.

Inside the large turbine engine sat a teenage couple sneaking a kiss.

Rikku replayed it.

The day the Highwind had been completed, Gippal had returned home to announce his acceptance into the Crimson Squad and that he would be leaving for good. It was also the day that Rikku would set out to find the summoner, Yuna.

**_Time and time and time will tell  
Time will tell or tear us apart  
You're miles and miles and miles away  
Silence reveals where we really are_**

"I want you to tell me everything!" Rikku shouted above the crowd. Everyone was cheering for Cid and his find. The engine gave off an echo, causing her voice to bounce back into her ears after a delay. Yevon had banned machina, but Cid would never put aside his dreams of uncovering the secrets of old. The Highwind was proof that no religion could tie down his dreams.

Gippal was relaxed as always; one knee up on his chest, the other swinging free out from the engine. Rikku was balled into a crescent shape around his side fiddling with her braid. "You're not mad that I'm really gonna be gone after this?" he asked.

Rikku rolled onto her back with her knees still at a forty five degree angle. "Nah. I'm leaving too soon. So spill, what was training like?"

"It was intense. These guys, and _girls_, are hardcore. There's even a Yevonite in my group. His name's something funny like Barrelguy…Borelie? I don't remember. Anyways, when I saw him I thought he was a training monk. I didn't expect him to be the type to wield a gun in front of Sin." Rikku laughed. She always loved the way Gippal told stories, trying hard to remember minute details and thus digressing from his point. "Anyways, my final test is gonna be down in some cavern. Then we're off to fight Sin."

"Let's make a bet." Gippal looked down at her with a cocked brow. "First one to defeat Sin claims _unbryh_."

"And the loser?"

Rikku stroked her chin in faux contemplation. "Hmm…loser…has to spend a night on the Thunderplains."

Gippal laughed loudly at the thought. "You do know I've been there like…a thousand times. In fact, you're probably the only Al Bhed in Spira who isn't completely infatuated with the Thunderplains. It's the pinnacle of electric spectacle."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm only saying it so I have motivation to beat you."

"Alright, let's shake on it." Gippal offered his hand to the lounging girl.

Rikku replied by giving him her considerably smaller hand. It fit snugly into his grip. Before the shake commenced, Gippal pulled harshly, tugging Rikku up for her rested position and bring her face closer to his. Before she had time to interject, he planted a dry kiss on her lips and pulled away abruptly. He would have loved to linger and let her know just how much he would miss her, but it didn't seem fair to tempt each other with something they couldn't have. "What was that for?"

"It was for me. A good luck kiss."

**_You only stand to break my heart  
I can tell it by the way you runaway,  
Runaway girl  
Runaway, runaway girl_**

"Yeah, this is definitely getting trashed." Rikku let the sphere shattered against the holographic floor, along with her memory of that stolen kiss.

Once she successfully sabotaged her father's lifelong dream, she decided to pay a visit to _her_ dune. It had been a while since she last saw _unbryh_. She wanted to take her friends there, the night they all ended up in the desert, but everyone had been preoccupied by the missing summoner. She recalled Auron's words verbatim: "Now is not the time, little one."

Out of all the people from her first pilgrimage into Zanarkand, Auron was the only one to show any reverence for her. Though she and Tidus shared a great deal of laughs and comradeship, he was Yuna's knight. Hell, most were Yuna's knight. Auron, however, hadn't tagged along for Yuna. He came for Tidus, but treated Rikku like a daughter along the way. Auron became Rikku's surrogate father quickly. At times, he could be a little stern, but she still preferred advice such as: Speak only the truth and you need never whisper, over the advice her real father had given her: Keep your lady parts covered no matter how hot the desert is.

Rikku gathered up her things and headed toward the exit when suddenly, her night vision goggles weren't necessary.

The streams of fluorescent lights that striped the ceiling sprang to life and she removed her goggles. _Tysh ed_ (Damn it), she cursed silently. A mild set back. But Rikku was cloaked in a full thief's outfit, a head to toe black catsuit with a long zipper stretching from the small of her back to the part in her hair. To give it a little Al Bhed flair, two large circles were subtracted from the waste, much like the way her Lady Luck dress sphere cut away.

"_Mucd_ (Lost)?" a familiar voice questioned. She didn't dare turn around and confirm her suspicions.

"_Ec hud ed bycd dra patdesa uv dra meuh _(Isn't it past the Lion's bedtime)?" she quipped.

"_E ys tuehk so tido uv gaabehk dra bayla, Rikku_ (I am doing my duty of keeping the peace, Rikku)." She didn't care for the way he said her name now, like it held a bad taste. "_Vyla sa_ (Face me)," he commanded. She also didn't care for being treated like a child, but she spun around slowly to face him. Her thick goggles still shrouded the heritage that her eyes flaunted. "_Mad sa caa dras_(Let me see them)." Rikku knew perfectly well what he was speaking of. Her lithe fingers slid under the strap of her goggles and removed them. A light pink oval traced the top of her face where the goggles had hugged her through the night. "_Drana oui yna_ (There you are)." He gazed intently into her eyes, admiring how the spiral in her pupil seemed to be more enchanting than any other girl's in the desert. She refused to flatter him by giving him a glance over. She had seen enough from the procession to know that he was still tall, tan, and handsome. She did notice the fact that he came in unarmed. _Stupid boy_. Rikku slipped her sidearm out from her bag swiftly and aimed it between his eye and his eye patch. "_Cruud ev oui fuimt mega_ (Shoot if you would like)." After an eternity of holding the man in her sights, her arm began to shake with frustration. No matter how much she loathed Gippal, no matter how much she wanted to see him fall from grace, Rikku could never end him. She let a loud groan escape her mouth, signaling Gippal he had won. He grabbed the barrel with one hand, twisted it around, and pointed it back at the thief. "_Cdynd dymgehk_ (Start talking)."

Rikku put up both of her hands to let him know that she had willingly surrendered. Gippal watched from his good eye as she ran the zipper down from her hairline. The rubbery black suit split down the center, giving her thick blonde mane room to escape. Her braids shot out in every direction and her blue headband was damp with perspiration. "Just going out for a stroll," she said innocently.

"Yeah, right. You high tailed it outta here, disappear for two years, and come back just to crash my party?"

Rikku laughed and nodded. Her long yellow braids danced with her gesture. "That's about the gist of it." She started pulling off her gloves finger by finger. "Mind lowering the gun, Gippal?"

"As far as I see, you're still a threat." She scoffed at the thought, but stiffened when she saw no faltering in his commanding posture. They locked eyes. On one end, Rikku was beginning to really wonder if the two years had completely undone their friendship. A part of her hoped so, but she wasn't really looking forward to getting shot because of it. On the other end, Gippal was holding out to see how scared he could make her, all the while fighting off the urge to gather her into his arms and apologize for every and anything he ever did to upset her. Before him stood his very best friend and he would give his other eye just to let her know that. Once he heard her breath come in ragged with fear, he knew he'd succeeded in psyching her out. He let out a booming laugh at this and lowered his gun. "I guess I can nix the chance of you coming here to congratulate me."

"You're damn right," Rikku said, letting out the breath that she had been holding the whole time. "You really think you can do it? I mean run the Al Bhed?"

"_Al Bhed_? You're included in that."

"So the sand in my blood would say, but I know better. I've got no family here, no friends here, no home here."

Gippal became rigid again, "Then you have no business here." He turned around for a moment to gather his words and composure. "For machina's sake, Rikku, you acted so childish when you ran away. You can't expect to-," he turned to find the thief had gone, leaving behind a shattered sphere. Gippal bent down to retrieve the fragments that his people had worked so hard to protect. The image was blurred due to the missing components, but he could barely make out the image of a teenage couple sneaking a kiss inside a turbine engine. "_Lusa rusa, Rikku, E ys cunno_ (Come home, Rikku, I'm sorry)."

**_It's clearer now  
You're nowhere into giving  
Giving into, giving into me  
It's your fault  
You're like a rare disease  
I know you're in love  
With love I believe_**

_Unbryh_ had died down a little since she last visited. With Sin gone, fiends weren't a daily occurrence. When Rikku loomed over, she could swear she saw the bottom; the pyreflies seemingly appearing from no where. She squinted down toward the bottom. It wasn't too far of a fall but not one she would like to experience.

Rikku stepped back and finished unzipping her suit. Underneath she wore a fitted green tank top, layering a darker green lace camisole underneath. Below were a pair of pinstriped denim shorts, accented by a knee high pair of tube socks. She enjoyed no longer having to find 9 different layers to pile on just to go out like all the other Al Bhed girls. Sometimes, it was nice to dress like a standard 19-year-old.

It was a needed refreshment, being out of her tight suit. The museum had a stuffy feel. The air was stale from all the recent construction, but the desert night was cool and revitalizing. She spread out her arms wide to let the blood rush to the muscles that desperately needed a good stretch. As her arms sprawled out like she were about to take off, she felt as if she were flying, the air rushing over every part of her.

That's when reality hit her. The walls of _unbryh_ were rushing past her before landing hard in a thicket of sand and desert brush. "Owwie," she groaned. On her back, tangled up in a bush and surrounded by pyreflies, she noticed a face looming over the ledge at her. At first, she suspected it was Gippal playing a joke on her, only to realize it was the last person anyone would have ever expected. "Auron?" she called. There was no doubt it was him. Though his much younger appearance masked him slightly, the stone glare gave him away. The grays had been replaced by youthful auburn locks. Most of his scars, notably the one over his eye, had been erased. His attire had shrunk with his stature. She recognized this version of him from the pyrefly images that played the first time she battled with Yunalesca. This was the young monk who guarded Braska with Jecht. She doubted this one would be quick to treat her like a child or call her 'Little One.' Then again, she doubted this version even knew who she was.

"How do you know my name?" he called, looking down his blade at the fallen girl.

"Why'd you push me down here?" she called back.

Her meek voice alerted him that she was no threat. The girl in the dark cat suit with a knife at her side was, but the nimble blonde stuck at the bottom of a pit was not. He sheathed his sword, but kept a steady hand at the ready by the handle. "I thought you were trespassing."

She laughed at the thought. _Her_ father owned half the desert, and _she_ was trespassing? And according to a bet made in an engine, _he_ was trespassing. Rikku came to her feet, fighting to ignore the scrapes and bruises. "You wanna help me outta here?"

"Not particularly. Are you an Al Bhed?"

Rikku thought hard about the question, "…No."

He removed his red leather jacket and lowered the sleeve to her. "Here. Grab on." _What a racist bastard_, she thought. She forgot that in his youth, Auron had been a devoted monk of Yevon. As he effortlessly pulled her to safety, he remarked, "You certainly look like one."

"Trust me, I'm far from one." She waited for a moment. There was no recognition in him. They were complete strangers. She enjoyed it faintly. He didn't consider her an airhead, he didn't know of her childish fears. He could potentially be a friend that new nothing of her past.

"Show me your face." The command was memorable in more than one way. Gippal had asked to see her eyes only an hour ago, and Auron himself had asked the same thing four years ago. As if she were fifteen all over again, she lifted her head with eyes pinched shut. "Open your eyes." She offered him one spiral green eye. "As I thought."

Rikku could no longer hold back her curiosity, "Auron…how?"

"How what?" he snapped.

"I don't know how to tell you this…but…you're dead!"

Auron dropped to the sand, letting his face rest on his bent knees. "I was afraid of that," he mumbled.

"You know?"

He looked up at her, both eyes, for once, staring into hers. "Every night I find myself here, plagued with these _damn_ pyreflies."

Rikku wanted to extend a warm hand, but wasn't sure of how he would react. "And by day?"

"I don't know. I'm running down this tunnel. I hear a voice calling to me…and then…here." Auron fidgeted in the sand, drawing circles with his finger. It was rare to see Auron acting vulnerable. In fact, Rikku couldn't even remember one instance. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper.

She crouched down with him, "My name is Rikku." There was a childish fear in his eyes. She finally saw him for what he was, a lost little boy. Rikku couldn't bring herself to unload the history between them and confuse him further. "I, uh, heard about you a long time ago. I don't know how much you recall, but you were a legendary guardian."

"Me?" he questioned.

"You're something really big around here."

**_Time and time and time will tell  
Time will tell or tear us apart  
You're miles and miles and miles away  
Silence reveals where we really are_**

Gippal tossed the sphere fragment on his desk before searching his drawers for a strong bottle of _Pmuut uv y Parasudr_, Al Bhed's heavy liquor. It roughly translated to Behemoth's Blood, but for a tired Gippal it translated to Drown-Out-Your-Nostalgia. The Al Bhed referred to it as simply _dra pmuut_. Gippal faintly remembered how Al Bhed boys used to sneak bottles of _dra pmuut_ from their parents and meat up at the oasis to try their hand at getting drunk. It was a rite of passage to get hammered and throw up half a kidney for Al Bhed boys. The girls; however, enjoyed it mixed in with a little orange juice.

He uncorked the old bottle that he kept for _really_ bad days at the office and tossed back a swig. It danced like liquid fire on his tongue. Before he could work up the courage for another sip, there was a hard knock on the door. "Yeah?" he called.

Slowly, the heavy glass door to his office opened, giving access to his comrade with tattoos and a mohawk. "You up, boss?" Brother's language was broken and course when not speaking Al Bhed.

Gippal sought to ease the tension by using their common tongue, "_E luimt hud cmaab_ (I could not sleep)."

Brother noticed the bottle on the table and gestured to it roughly, "_keja sa y ceb uv dra pmuut _(Give me a sip of the blood)." Gippal tossed the bottle over to his comrade. Brother could hold his alcohol phenomenally. His sip quickly turned into a chug. With a loud gulp, Brother slammed the bottle back down on an end table next to the black suede couch in Gippal's office. "_Dryd ec kuut. Huf damm sa, vneaht, fro tu hud oui nazuela fedr uin pnudranc_ (That is good. Now tell me, friend, why don't you rejoice with our brothers)?"

Gippal crossed the room and tossed himself on the couch all while contemplating another sip of alcohol. "_E cyf Rikku duhekrd_ (I saw Rikku tonight)." If anyone deserved to know of Rikku's whereabouts, Gippal figured her brother was on the list.

To Gippal's surprise, his visitor was unmoved. "_Kuut. E ghuf oui secc ran. E lyh caa dra byeh oui dno du reta frah ran hysa ec sahdeuhat_ (Good. I know you miss her. I can see the pain you try to hide when her name is mentioned)." Gippal admired the way Brother's speech became much more eloquent when using Al Bhed. Their language had a divinely ancient feel, never slurred, never abbreviated, and always taking pride in their word choice. Though Brother could be outrageously outspoken when the occasion called for it, standard Brother called for a man with wisdom beyond his years. It was a side that few had seen. Gippal had recognized it the day he returned to the desert to find Rikku had started a sphere hunting group. He overheard Brother having a serious conversation with his father, Cid, about buying an airship. The fruits of that labor came about in the form of the Celsius. "_E caa ran duu cusadesac_ (I see her too sometimes)."

"_Fryd_ (What)?!"

"_Oac. Drana yna hekrdc frah E vaam y tnyvd vnus y fehtuf dryd E ghuf E crid. E rayn ran vuudcdabc cdub yd dra vuud uv so pat. Yht drah cra kuac. E tu hud caa ran fedr so ufh aoac, pid E lyh ymfyoc vaam dra bnacahla uv so cecdan. Uin rayndc yna luhhaldat. So vydran duu. E rayn res lno yd hekrd cusadesac. Ra lymmc 'Cdyo! E ys cunno!' Yht drah dra tnyvd ec kuha, yht E caa dra fehtuf ec crid, yht E ghuf cra ec kuha_ (Yes. There are nights when I feel a draft from a window that I know I shut. I hear her footsteps stop at the foot of my bed. And then she goes. I do not see her with my own eyes, but I can always feel the presence of my sister. Our hearts are connected. My father too. I hear him cry at night sometimes. He calls 'Stay! I am sorry!' And then the draft is gone, and I see the window is shut, and I know she is gone)." Gippal felt strangely connected to that feeling. There had been many nights he was overcome with a chill seemingly from nowhere. There was a distant pain in Brother's eyes. Though the siblings bickered constantly, Brother had been her protector for many a year. "_Tu oui nasaspan fryd E dumt oui y muhk desa yku_ (Do you remember what I told you a long time ago)?"

They sat next to each other on the couch now, reading the sorrow in each other's eyes. "_Oui ycgat sa du pa ran ghekrd_ (You asked me to be her knight)".

"_Yc fa knaf ib, Rikku hu muhkan muugat du sa yc ran ranu. Pid cra fyc femt ypuid oui. Cra ytsenat ouin nalgmacc ypyhtuh. Pid ed clynat sa. E tet hud fyhd oui du rind so meddma cecdan. Cra hu muhkan muugat du sa vun ytjela, pid fuimt nih du oui fedr yho meddma yhhuoyhla. E dumt oui, pa ran ghekrd_ (As we grew up, Rikku no longer looked to me as her hero. But she was wild about you. She admired your reckless abandon. But it scared me. I did not want you to hurt my little sister. She no longer looked to me for advice, but would run to you with any little annoyance. I told you, be her knight)." Brother patted Gippal on the knee hard and began to exit. "_Kad cusa nacd, Meuh. Cruimt oui vaam y tnyvd duhekrd, cbayg du ed. Cra femm mecdah du ran ghekrd_ (Get some rest, Lion. Should you feel a draft tonight, speak to it. She will listen to her knight)."

**_You only stand to break my heart  
I can tell it by the way you runaway,  
Runaway girl  
Runaway, runaway girl_**

Auron and Rikku spoke for what felt like hours about any and everything. Just when Rikku felt like she had answered his last question, Auron had one more about Braska or Jecht or Sin. She told him everything she could while trying not to let slip how they were connected.

The stars went out one by one, and Rikku knew morning was not far off. She stood and stretched. Auron looked up at her with hopeful eyes, "Are you leaving?"

She glanced down at him. Rikku wondered if her Auron, given the chance, would have spent a whole night conversing with her. "There's someone I need to see still. And if what you say is true, you'll be leaving again soon."

He sighed, displeased with her answer. "Will I see you again tomorrow?"

"Huh?" she blurted.

Auron stared off into the unknown sands. "I feel…connected to you. Trust me, it's rare that I find an Al Bhed I can stand for more than six minutes, let alone six hours. You don't…you don't know how lonely it is being dead."

"Then I'll be back tomorrow night," she said with a wide smile. The least she could do for someone who befriended her in life was befriend them in their afterlife.

**_Do you expect me to wait here?  
All alone in my thoughts and fears  
My whole life could crash before your eyes  
Hope one day that you realize  
This isn't the way it's supposed to be  
This is your life girl, now without me  
May regrets for us well up inside  
As feelings for you are buried alive  
Buried alive_**

Gippal stirred sluggishly when he felt a gust breathe over his exposed his chest. His thin cotton sheet cloaked his lower half, leaving the small hairs on his body to fall victim to the chill, all standing on end. A whistling told him that it wasn't just the AC kicking on, but an open window on the other side of his bedroom.

His mind sprung to life with chaos. He wanted to dash across the room and lock the window, keep her trapped with him. But he didn't want to scare her. He needed to be delicate as if she were a wounded animal, he would need to earn her trust slowly.

Gippal lay on his side, eye clenched tight. "Rikku," he whispered.

Nothing.

"Rikku?" this time whispering with the inflection of a question. He couldn't see it, nor could he hear it, but somehow he felt as if she were fleeing. The thief had come with the intentions of being unnoticed. "If you come back to me, I swear I've changed." He felt her pause. "I can't do this alone." His eye was clenched so tight he feared he might squeeze out a tear and embarrass himself before his secret visitor. "I need you to be my friend again, Rikku." The goose bumps began to race up his body, starting at his bare feet, coming to his forehead. He could feel her move in the same direction, starting at the foot of his bed and working her way up where he clenched his pillows.

He knew she was in front of him. He wanted to trap her in his arms like a rabbit he had lured in with promises of carrots, but that would only hurt her trust. He needed her to feel as if she had tricked him. Warmth flowed over him as a soft set of lips pressed themselves gently on his bare cheek. "Cmaab, Meuh (Sleep, Lion)."

Then, it was gone, as sure as Brother predicted.

Gippal's eye shot open, scanning his surroundings. The window was still latched shut, but the burning on his cheek where her kiss had stained him proved that someone had indeed visited him that night.

**_You only stand to break my heart  
I can tell it by the way you runaway,  
Runaway girl  
Runaway, runaway girl  
I only stand to break your heart  
You can tell it by the way I walk away,  
Runaway girl_**  
-Anberlin

* * *

So that's chapter #2 for you. Please review.


	3. Can't Let It Go

I wanna start by saying THANKS to my two reviewers, and for Josie, I hope this chapter clarifies some of the out of character-ness. I apologize for it. Sometimes the way things sound in my head don't look the same written down. Also, I've introduced the idea of Al Bhed housing in this chapter. I mean, they gotta all be living somewhere! Think of it as the Shumi Tribe in Final Fantasy VIII, but not as much vegetation. Bring on the fiction!

**_You said you'd light a candle  
And you'd say a prayer for me  
Well I feel the light has dimmed and gone  
And half the world is begging  
While the other half steals  
Oh where did everything go wrong?_**

Gippal awoke with a new lightness in his step. Just knowing that Rikku cared enough to stop by during the night gave him a new hope. Even his assistant, Shinra, had to admit that the _meuh_ was overwhelmingly chipper. Gippal strolled into his office ready for his first official day as leader. Shinra was already inside, waiting patiently by his boss' desk with a large stack of papers waiting for his approval. "How's it going, sand rat?" Gippal joked. It wasn't a name Shinra particularly favored, but Shinra could never convince his friend that he had indeed grown since his days as a Gullwing.

"Sir," Shinra started, trying to keep up a professional demeanor for the sake of his position as _meuh's _assistant, "you've got these bills to glance over and Praetor Baralai and President Terryn are here to see you."

Gippal plopped down onto his suede chair in front of a large stack of papers. He had never come face to face with bureaucracy until now. Sure, the Machine Faction had book keeping and had to stay within certain building codes and occasionally a few laws of physics, Gippal had people to work on that for him. What made him the best was his extensive knowledge of machina and his experience in battle, not because he could impress a bunch of bigwigs. "Baralai and who?"

"That's _Praetor_ Baralai and President Terryn, as in President of Luca, as in, an important machina merchant." Shinra rubbed his temples in distress. It was the perfect time to use his 'just a kid' excuse. "I know it's your first day, but these guys are gonna need you to impress them. Because if they do, they by our workers and our machines which translates to money for things like better roads and social programs."

The _meuh_ was lost in his own thoughts. Gippal tossed his glass paperweight amongst himself, fading in and out of the conversation he was having. "I can't wait to tell Baralai about last night."

"_Praetor_ Baralai," he reiterated, "is going to expect you to be professional. He will act as _Praetor_ Baralai and you will act as _Meuh_ Gippal. Got it?" Gippal thrust out his bottom lip like a crying child and nodded. "All right. They're in the conference room."

"Conference room? You mean that stuffy, windowless room?"

Shinra groaned again, "Would you rather me set you all up with a tour of the desert?"

"Chop, chop, sand rat."

**_Some days I can't believe  
Others I'm on my knees  
Trying to be heard_**

Rikku had flown the whole night, trying to get the image of Gippal out of her mind. And after a quick trip from shore to shore, she found herself parked outside of her dune wondering what to do next. Every now and again…

her mind…

would…

wander…

_The way his muscled chest would rise and fall in the night air, every breath was a tiny little gift to her_. "_Oh, lusa uh, Rikku_ (Oh, come on, Rikku)," she cursed to herself. Her mind would bounce back and forth between being ecstatic about seeing him again and being ecstatic about seeing his gorgeous figure again. Rikku hated that even after a 19 year existence, she still reverted to childish ways. Her thoughts had become a harlequin romance over night, thinking about _rippling_ muscles and _brooding_ lips. _He's the same grease monkey you've known since you were born_, Rikku screamed in her head.

Pacing back and forth, having an angry conversation with herself, Rikku could hardly believe she had gotten herself so worked up, and over Gippal of all people. "You _cannot_ go back there tonight!" she commanded. The tiny airship rocked side to side with every angry step. Due to the petite stature of her ship, The Rift, Rikku found herself ranting in her small kitchen one second and raving in her bathroom the next. She should have been more grateful to Gippal after coming up with the idea for a personal airship. The Machine Faction had been working on personal airships for years, but the components for the engine required large areas to necessitate the engine's size. It was Gippal who found that with the engine of a standard hover fused together with a second engine and injected with the same diesel hybrid fuel used to power the hoses that filled Blitz stadiums, he could manufacture a more compact airship engine. It was also Gippal who had been tight with his gil and not hired enough security to protect it, leaving it wide open for Rikku to highjack.

The controls of the prototype were definitely built with Gippal in mind. The helm's handles were stiff and thick, but it gave Rikku a chance to work on her biceps. Some other male based _luxuries_ were the rock solid mattress, the kitchen which contained only a microwave, sink, and a refrigerator, and the bathroom, if it could be called that. The bathroom consisted of a 6' by 6' shower with a curtain encircling it, a toilet with absolutely no privacy, and no sink. Rikku assumed Gippal figured people would only need one sink per mobile home. The Rift was a virtual studio apartment capable of flight. It was severely in need of a woman's touch. Only a foot away from her bed was the open cockpit. Underneath the mattress was a cramped room where the complex engine was kept.

The only thing that brought her back to the desert was her promise to Auron. Rikku would have been content to hang around Spira as she always did. She had acquired a few friends at bars she frequented, seen just about every Blitzball game, played a few rounds of Sphere Break in a couple of alleys, trained in every forest and dungeon to hone her combat skills, and re-adventured in just about every corner of Spira, always finding new treasures she had missed the first two times she toured the planet.

Her first two journeys were on other peoples' schedules. The first one required her to dash through some of the most fascinating places in Spira to get Yuna to Zanarkand as soon as possible. The second trip involved her obsessing over spheres or running from jumbo sized fiends. Digging around Bikanel would have been so much more fun if Yuna hadn't volunteered the Gullwings to fight Angra Mainyu. This round, Rikku was finally able to explore the way she wanted. One of her first adventures was bringing her pet monkey, Ghiki, from her trainer dress sphere, out to Zanarkand and letting him free. Why Yuna took home that damn dress sphere in the first place was beyond Rikku. She had also snuck back into the Chamber of the Fayth in Bevelle to examine the machina that was in use down there, all the while reveling in the hypocrisy.

**_I was your anger  
And you were my fear  
And now that it's over  
Of course it's so clear  
But you were no angel  
And I was no sin  
Somehow I can't let it go  
I can't let it go_**

Gippal entered the conference room with his shoulders slumped forward. Schmoozing with fellow leaders paled in comparison to being elbow deep in engine oil. He had to fight the urge to call 'what's up' when he saw Baralai. Instead, he offered a handshake and a stern, "Good afternoon," to Baralai and the woman at his side. Terryn was a frightful vision. In her earlier years, she had been a goalie for the Luca Goers, but traded in her ball for a sword and became a Crusader. When Spira finally regained peace, Baralai held a service, reinstating any Crusader who wished to rejoin the Yevon religion, which is how the pair had first met. Terryn had muscles like a Ronso and a voice like one as well, deep and abrupt. She towered over Gippal and Baralai in both height and build. Her hair was wiry, long, and brown. Her eyes were an odd shade of grey. Gippal began to wonder just how justified his suspicions of Ronso heritage were. He shuttered at the thought. The only reason Terryn won the election for president over Rin was because of Luca's fear that Rin would delve the city further into their reputation of being Spira's entertainment capital. Luca's people wanted Spira to know that they were a political force to be reckoned with, and the spread of Sphere Break was bringing in a larger amount of gamblers than Blitz did.

Baralai looked the same as ever. Platinum hair cut down to an immaculate length, not a stitch on his robes was out of place. Baralai's skin still a more chocolatey shade of tan than Gippals, and his eyes a soft brown to accent. Baralai accepted Gippal's handshake and marveled at how mature Gippal had become simply by adding a _meuh_ in front of his name. "Meuh Gippal, I am glad to introduce to you President Terryn," Baralai relayed.

Gippal offered her a handshake as well but was greeted with a brisk jerk from her. He felt his arm being tugged from the socket. "_Meuh_? Is that an Al Bhed word?"

Gippal nodded and recovered his violated hand from her painful grip. "Yes, it means lion. There have been a few predecessors, most notably Meuh Cid, but the position took a hiatus due to the island's uncertain times." Baralai took note of his buddy's practiced speech. This wasn't the same teenager tinkering with robots in the sand.

Terryn scoffed at Gippal's last statement, "In times of turmoil, leaders are needed most."

Gippal wanted to put her in her place by commenting that Luca had never seen turmoil, but didn't want to cause a global dispute. "I agree," he lied. "Now, if you both will follow me outside, my assistant has provided us with a tour of my land. We can discuss matters along the way."

Gippal lead the pair through the double doors and back into the desert. The embassy was atop a dune and sat with no introduction such as a path leading to it or an entryway. The Al Bhed didn't believe in displacing ancient sand to create roads. The people simply memorized the locations of dunes and which buildings were built into them. Like the grand structure that was once Home, the embassy was deeper than wide, making use of the grand tunnels sand worms had been excavating for centuries. Many of the Al Bhed homes were located in an enormous underground catacomb called _dra Luhluinca_, for the concourse. It was one of the many tools the Al Bhed used to remain private and protected. People who visited Bikanel often wondered where the Al Bhed stayed because to them it appeared as a giant beach with few structures. But a majority of the Al Bhed population was housed securely underground at _dra Luhluinca_. Few people lived above ground. Gippal's home was at an airship base called _dra Frynv uv dra Zu_, which roughly translated to _The Zu's Wharf_. His quarters had been above ground, but the whole rest of the base was buried. During processions, such as the inauguration, large machina were brought above ground to serve as a stage and the people simply gathered in the sand.

Terryn and Baralai squinted as they stepped into the blinding desert sunlight. Shinra was already patiently waiting at the front of the embassy with a hover and an enclosed cart hitched to the back end. It served as a makeshift limousine to anyone of slight importance that passed through the desert.

The trio gathered into the surprisingly spacious cart and sat at ends from one another in the sphere shaped cart. The conversation began with small talk about many of the Al Bhed marvels, including _dra Luhluinca_, their irrigation system, the CommSphere network, and their alliance with Cactuar Nation. "I'm glad to hear you people have such a hold on technological advances because the new stadium needs to be at the pinnacle of mechanical genius," Terryn said after they passed by _Kas uv dra Tacand_.

Gippal didn't care for the way she referred to the Al Bhed as _you people_. "I thought Luca wasn't interested in entertainment these days?" he jested in his defense.

Terryn stiffened at the blatant attack on her city and Gippal suddenly wished he were dealing with Rin. "The stadium is one of the few things that unite all Spira as a single race. Which brings me to my second proposition. I want a temple put in Luca."

Gippal choked on his tongue at the notion. He shot a glare to Baralai who was pleading with his eyes for compliance. It was then that Gippal realized these were Baralai's intentions for tagging along in the first place. "Wow, wow, wow," Gippal said, breaking his character, "let me point out everything that's wrong with what you just said. First, the temples were built to worship the aeons that lay inside. There is no known aeon in Luca. Secondly, Yevonites and Al Bhed don't really agree on religious matters. I mean, sure Baralai and I are pals, but you don't see us lining up to go to church together. What grounds could you _possibly_ have for asking me to consent to do this? The last thing my insanely patriotic people would want their new _meuh_ to do is become a Yevon sympathizer."

"Think of yourself as an opportunist, you'd be bringing in greatly needed revenue," Terryn said.

Baralai finally spoke up in defense of the idea, "We would be bridging the gap of peace between the nations. The temple will be created to celebrate Yevon. We need you because of the complex design it would entail."

"Keep talking," Gippal prodded.

Baralai continued, "We would allow the Al Bhed into the Bevelle underground to see the machina Chamber of Fayth that once housed Bahamut. This is, needless to say, a very rare and generous offer."

"What's so special about a machina Chamber of Fayth?"

"Don't act like you're not dying to see it," Baralai joked, dropping his character momentarily as well. "We need your builders to see it because they're gonna recreate it."

"Alright, alright, how much ya paying?"

"A gil for every grain of sand in your desert," Terryn answered.

"You don't have that kinda money. _Luca's_ not worth _that_ much."

"You underestimate Spira's love for Blitzball. Are you in or are you out?"

Gippal glanced out the window across the sands down to where _Unbryh_ was. A familiar item was balanced atop the dune. Gippal remembered regretfully The Rift. _I was wondering where you went_, Gippal thought to himself. He didn't need a detective to tell him it was a certain Al Bhed thief used the stolen airship as a base of operation. Gippal thought about how many more of the ships he could produce if he could get a factory going for them. "Alright, you've got my help." Gippal leaned back against the seat with his palms linked behind his head, "And because we're being so generous with one another, how 'bout a few tickets to tomorrow's match?"

**_Half the world is sleeping  
While the other half dreams  
You close your eyes  
And then you're gone  
And maybe my intentions  
Have been misunderstood  
I know you feel so beautifully wronged_**

Rikku awoke several hours later in a daze. She didn't know when she dozed off with sweet betraying thoughts of Gippal, but indeed, she had. Night threatened to cloak the horizon in its shadow. Rikku rubbed the sleep from her eyes, wondering when Auron would appear. She grabbed a light cotton jacket from the captain's chair and went to exit. The inside was dark, but Rikku knew the layout well enough to deny the help of the overhead lights. She fingered along the wall in search of the door's release button. Near the exit, she pressed the device, only to find the door refused to budge. Again, she triggered the device. Rikku slowly grew frustrated, this time wanting the aid of some light.

After flicking the light switch over and over, a voice called from the opposite side of the ship, "You're not the only one who can pick a lock."

Rikku groaned and fell back against the wall. "Mind telling me why the lights are broken?"

Suddenly, the lights came to life and lit up the tiny flying house. "Not broken. Just reprogrammed. The door; however; _is_ broken. You're gonna have to open that sucker manually." Gippal ran his fingers through his hair suavely. "I think I got my wires crossed."

She could tell he was in the mood for a lengthy conversation, "You can say that again."

"Alright, Cid's girl, sit down and let's get this over with."

Rikku obeyed happily for once. She could use a little verbal vengeance. She had only told him off through a letter. With all the pent up aggression still burning inside her, and Gippal at his most vulnerable and ready to apologize until his mouth fell off, Rikku figured now was the perfect time to really let him have it.

Gippal was thinking the same thing. He could tell Rikku was ready to deal out some venom and he was prepared to shoot her down with logic and good ol' fashioned groveling. Gippal decided to let her begin, "Lady's first, kid. Let me have it. The full dose. Let me know every vile, loathsome thing you've been waiting to say to my smug face." Rikku hated the way he stripped everything she was poised to say. "I can't wait."

Rikku stumbled with the wording for a moment, caught off guard by the way he seemed to know exactly what she wanted to say. "Why don't you me why _you_ think I left?"

Gippal cleared his throat before taking a seat on the captain's chair across from where Rikku sat cross-legged atop the mattress. "Alright, you left because you're a damn child like I said you were in that bar." He had to fight off taking in a good look at the woman on the bed. Rikku certainly didn't look like a child. "You didn't want the responsibility of running Bikanel, so you told your dad to shove it because you didn't wanna let him know you were scared. As for what happened with us, well, you simply couldn't take it that I'm the only man in your life that offers up any opposition. But I got news for you, sweetheart, I'm might piss you off and I might break your heart time and time again, but I'm not ever going nowhere."

Rikku felt a tear fight to escape. This was just the kind of motivation she needed to unleash her anguish. "Thanks, Rikku, for destroying Vegnagun," she screamed. "Thanks, Rikku, for saving Yuna. Thanks, Rikku, for digging in the desert. Thanks, Rikku, for denying the offer to rule the desert so I could do what I had been dreaming of doing since I was a child. What do you know about anything, you arrogant bastard?"

"You want a thank you, you winey brat?" he screeched, letting the name calling continue. "Do you know what your dad, Brother, and I all went through? Evrey time someone needed you, you'd run off without so much as a goodbye and a fistful of your dad's gil. You told your pops you wanted the Celcius to do some sphere hunting. Then, a few months later, you come home and tell everyone you've accepted a virtual suicide mission. Dammit, Rikku, I was worried sick about you. We all were!" He calmed down slightly only to gather more momentum, "And don't blame anyone for that mess you got yourself into following Rikku. You put yourself there! Now, no excused, why the hell did you leave?"

Rikku collapsed into her pillow, face down, crying full force. A part of her wanted to continue the act that she had left to be alone, but Gippal always saw through her. She was upset at how her life had turned out and was looking for scapegoat.

Regret finally washed over Gippal for his callousness. However, Rikku really had scared him to death when he heard she was to fight Sin and again when she fought Vegnagun. Rikku was a beloved friend he couldn't imagine living without. He came to his feet and crossed the room to her. His hand hovered above her quivering back, debating whether he should comfort her physically or not. He wasn't even sure if his words would do the trick at that point. "Listen, kid, I'm not _mad _at you. I'm just so damn _frustrated_. When I came home from the Crimson Squad, I had all the dreams and plans. I thought maybe we could…we could…" Rikku turned onto her back and beamed up at him. Her eyes were like two rain-soaked cherries, red and wet. Her eyes begged for him to finish that sentence, but Gippal's pride wasn't easily broken, not even in the face of a crying Rikku. "Did you really mean what you said about turning your dad down for me?"

**_Some days I can't believe  
Others I'm on my knees  
Hoping I belong_**

_"Kid," Cid began, "it's yours. All of it. I'm too old to take care of it._

_Rikku had finally brought the Celcius home in one piece after the big finale with Vegnagun. Her father met her at dra Frynv uv dra Zu to welcome her home, but came with some heavy news. "Pops, I don't want Bikanel. What am I gonna do with a desert?"_

_"Ya saved the world twice, you're more than qualified to run the joint." Cid overflowed with glee. This had been his dream since his youth, to pass on his legacy and empire to one of his children. Brother had respectfully declined the offer as well the previous year, saying he had a lot of reckless moments to get off his chest before he settled down with anything, let alone an entire country. Cid hoped that Rikku's necessity to save others would inspire her to take the position as meuh._

_"I'm flattered. And I'm sure I would make a damn good leader if I put my head to it, but…there's someone who's worked much harder for the position."_

_"Shinra?" Cid questioned._

_"No, you bald goon!" Rikku cried. "I'm talking about Gippal!"_

_"Grease monkey Gippal?"Cid rubbed his shiny head in confusion. "I don't know. He's a little chauvinistic." Rikku shot him the 'and you and Brother aren't' look. "He's a little young to be leadin' a country." Rikku shot him the 'I'm 17' look. "He ain't my kid! I'll be a chocobo's uncle if the next meuh of this desert isn't one of my own!"_

_"Then you better get to makin' babies, pops, because I ain't doing it!"_

_There shouting was disrupting the work of two workers who had been diligently trying to ignore their argument. "You and Brother are all I got left in this world. I wanted to give ya something special."_

_Rikku felt a little remorseful for raising her voice at the old man, but couldn't see herself dashing her friend's dream to grant her fathers. Not when she knew in her heart of hearts that Gippal was the perfect candidate to run Bikanel. "You're not gonna let this go, are you Pops?" she asked, defeated. _

_"So long as you're an Al Bhed, this island is yours."_

_The following week, Rikku sent her father a letter that read the following:_

**_Cid,__  
I have given up my heritage as an Al Bhed. I don't want to be meuh and frankly, I hardly want to be your daughter. If I had it my way, the entire island, including all the sand monkeys on it, would be burned to a crisp.  
Rikku_**

_It was the hardest thing she ever did, but Rikku knew if she didn't break her father's heart, Gippal would never have his chance to prove himself to the people of Bikanel. Rikku also knew her father would eventually forgive her if she gave it time, whereas Gippal would be eternally crushed if the absentminded friend from his youth ruled his people before him._

**_And I was your anger  
And you were my fear  
And now that it's over  
Of course it's so clear  
But you were no angel  
And I was no sin  
Somehow I can't let it go  
I can't let it go_**

Rikku finished the recounting of her story all while fighting the cascading of tears. Gippal shocked at the idea of her doing something so selfless, could no longer compete with his need to embrace her. He gathered her into his strong arms, letting her drain every last tear into his chest. "You did that even after I said all those mean things about you?" he asked.

She looked up at him, their spirals locked onto one another, "You're my friend. I can never hate you, Gippal." Rikku buried her face back into his chest and mumbled, "It scares me."

"What? What do you mean it _scares_ you?"

Rikku backed away from him leaving an empty space in his arms. "You said terrible things about me. But at the drop of a hat, I turned over an entire country to you."

"I was hammered and I said you had a mind like a fish tank. I'm sure that's grounds for forgiveness."

"Ugh! It wasn't that!"

"Was it the 'great body' part because, sweetie, that's a compliment."

Rikku wanted to be away from him more than ever, but there was nowhere to escape to in the tiny ship. She thought seriously about crawling into the engine room and sealing the door. "Why'd you tell my dad I wasn't marriage material!" she finally released. Rikku kept that burning question in her mouth since the day she left, never acquiring the courage to ask him.

"Wait a minute. I seem to recall telling the boys your father asked me to marry you. I never said what my reply was."

"It's obvious what it was!"

"You really wanna know what I told your dad that day?"

**_And laughter is my soul's release  
But we're not smiling anymore  
And can't we try to win this peace  
'Cause we're never gonna win  
Never gonna win this war_**

_Gippal was dashing from wall to wall in his room gathering clothes and supplies. Cid stood in the doorway with his arms folded over his chest watching the young man frantically pile things into a canvas sack, all the while chanting, "I gotta go find her. I gotta go find her."_

_"What are ya doing, boy?" Cid at last asked._

_Word that Rikku had returned to the desert to tell her father about her upcoming mission spread through the Al Bhed gossip line until it reached Gippal's ears in Djose. "Rikku's going after Vegnagun. I gotta stop her." Gippal stopped packing when he noticed the comment left no effect on her father, Cid. "Aren't you worried in the least bit?"_

_Cid shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm the meuh around here, I gotta be a duck in the water, calm on top, but my feet are going a mile a minute. Sure I'm worried, boy. But the girl took down Sin, a machina should be no trouble for her."_

_"It's not just some machina. Vegnagun is a colossal death machine." Gippal could attest to the power the monstrosity that was Vegnagun contained._

_"Kid, you better say it right now or you're gonna have no grounds to go and rescue her."_

_Gippal looked back at the meuh from his dresser where he hysterically grabbed fistfuls of boxers and socks and jammed them into the overflowing bag. "What are you talking about?"_

_"You can't really be that worried about Rikku getting into with a machina. Now, I know what's really got you all worked up, and if you don't say it out loud-"_

_"Say what?" Gippal shouted. Cid's weird way of lecturing always came at inopportune times._

_"You love the damn girl and we all know it."_

_Gippal suddenly took on the mannerisms of a twelve year old boy with his first crush. First sweating, then fidgeting, then blushing, then denying completely. "Gramps, I think you've been huffing too much exhaust down her. I do not __love__ Rikku." Cid cocked an eyebrow at him. "I mean sure, she's my dear friend and I love her in that sense, but I'm not __in love__ with Rikku."_

_"There are thousands of workers who signed up to dig in that stupid hell hole out in Bikanel but you picked Rikku's group. Now are you gonna lie and tell me that it had nothing to do with wanting to be near her?"_

_"I'm not gonna __lie__ and say that, I'm just gonna say that. I figured the Gullwings could get some publicity going for us and…alright, I spent countless nights in a cramped tent with her sleeping next to me every night she came to dig."_

_Cid closed the gap between them and put a hard hand on the young man's shoulder. "See. That wasn't so hard."_

_"I can't lose her, Cid. I spent two years without her, and I'm not going to do it again."_

_Cid held Gippal at arm's length with one palm on each of his shoulders. "If you mean that, if you mean every word you just said, then you know what you gotta do. I think you'd do good to let her know as soon as possible. Maybe even marry her," he joked. Gippal gave him the 'we're getting ahead of ourselves' look and Cid shot back the 'I want some damn grandkids' look. "Son, the kid's got a good heart and a lotta drive, she just needs your direction."_

**_I was your anger  
And you were my fear  
Now that it's over  
Of course it's so clear  
But you were no angel  
And I was no sin  
Somehow I can't let it go  
I can't let it go  
_**_-Goo Goo Dolls_

_

* * *

_Well, that's the end of this feller (sorry, I'm still in Cid mode). Anyways, please, please, please, review and thanks to my other two reviewers. I hope this chapter clarified any character flaws Josie noticed. If not, I suck! Anyways, I gotta hold off on writing the next one because my Trinity Blood fic is lacking. So you'd better review a lot to hold me over until the next chapter. Love you guys!


	4. Let It Happen

Author's Note: Sorry this took so-dang-long to update. But having a life and writing is hard. You can't do both at one…so right now I have no life. :P Also, this chapter has a lot of references to Via Infinito. If you never went through that dungeon in the game…it's a doozy. But check out a FFX-2 walkthrough or faq page to figure out what I'm talking about. And if you're wondering about the timeline of this story compared to the game, the flashbacks in this chapter take place in Chapter 3 of the game after the Gullwings see Gippal at Djose but before they start clearing out the temples. This is because after that point, Gippal is gone in the game. That'll be explained later in my story too.

* * *

**_I have a ringing in my head  
And no one to help me answer it  
Even with you close enough to kiss_**

Following their respective confessions a sickening silence took over the Rift. Gippal's soft breathing fell in sync to the metronome rhythm of Rikku's sniffling. With the balance of friend and enemy still shaking nervously, Gippal couldn't bring himself to budge an inch. Rikku, on the other hand, settled into comfortable breathing, pulled herself up to a prostrate position across from him, and said, "You should go."

And like that, Rikku had put the entire distance of Spira between them again. "Will I see you again?" he pleaded.

"It might not be a good idea. I…um…I have some things to think over still."

Rikku crossed the ship to her captain's chair and Gippal followed loyally. "Are you my friend or not?" She spun her chair away from his begging face.

"I don't know," she shot back.

"Are you coming back tomorrow?" He questioned, pulling the chair back to face him.

"I don't know," she said spinning back.

The swivel fight continued as he fired questions and she indecisively countered. "Will you be visiting _Unbryh _again?"

"I don't know."

"Then why did you even come back!"

"I don't know!" She burst.

Out of breath and disgusted with her lack of answers, Gippal charged toward the door. Before prying open the jammed door, he said with a painful grimace, "I said I was sorry and genuinely meant it. You, however, have yet to justify any of your actions."

The hangar door snapped shut and the Rift was empty of Gippal again. There was a terrorizing ringing in her ears that his frustrated words left behind. The desert was a magnet that kept pulling her back to it. Would she always be tied to this place?

Would she always be tied to _him_?

The will power it took to remain stoic in front of his honest words took its toll on her metal stability. She wanted to chase after him but she wanted to run away and never come back. How could love, the warmest feeling to be had, be so destructive and confusing?

She ran away to give Gippal her empire, but something about seeing him standing on that stage, addressing the Al Bhed as _rec baubma _(his people) set her mind into a frenzy. If this is what she wanted, why was she trying to sabotage it? Something about the situation wasn't exactly how she planned it to be, and the lack of perfection caused her to act childish and closed off at Gippal's expense.

**_Every minute is arranged  
Every moment lasts a day  
Thinking 'bout it can't help me let go  
I know_**

Auron sat patiently in the sand with his sword at his side and jacket wrapped snugly about his shoulders. He recalled days of crossing the Moonflow by night and finding a serene joy in the pyrflies, but the dune's glowing visitors left him feeling sick. They only served to remind him that he was once alive.

"Hey there!" a girlish tone called in the distance.

Though the monk knew well that it was his new friend Rikku, he kept a cautious hand near the handle of his blade. As she drew closer, Auron studied her face through the cloud of pyrflies that seemed to multiply in his presence. There was a strange dull light to her that used to be a reckless fire. Her lips curled up into a welcoming smile but her eyes were puffy and wet from what he imagined were tears. "Are you feeling okay?" he asked.

Rikku dropped down in the sand next to him, kicking up sand and pyrflies but paying no mind to it. She shrugged at his greeting, "Long day."

"I've been thinking about my situation a lot lately. Have you been many places in Spira?" Rikku nodded, keeping the truth to herself. _Many places_ was an understatement. "This place that I go to during the day, the fiends are numerous and of all species. It's unlike any place I've ever been. That is, every region has fiends that are specific to that place, but there are helms and imps and drakes the size of buildings."

"Big drakes?"

"_Huge_ drakes! And they chase me down these long hallways."

A wave of panicked realization came over her, "…Via Infinito."

"I knew you would know!" Rikku's face paled with fear of that never ending labyrinth of death and sorrow, but Auron was glad to hear she knew of his location. "You can go there, you can figure it out, you can get me out-"

Rikku's pupils nearly bulged out of her head with fright. Memories of Trema's vast power and all the other colossus fiends that preceded him didn't really give Rikku warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings. Vegnagun was a cake-walk compared to those damn mega-tornberries. "It's really a three-person job. And right now, I'm flying solo."

"Is it that bad?" he questioned.

"Let's put it this way, every two minutes I was either about to die or running for my life. If I know anything about dark scary secrets, the answer is always way at the end of the maze, and way at the end of _that_ maze are giant fiends that do not give up when they set out to kill you. That may not frighten you, but I happen to be mortal." Auron frowned a little at the callous remark pinned at the end of her speech. She acknowledged this, but continued, "First time round, I had two partners with me in every fight, and partners waiting behind to pull us out if things got crazy. Those fiends weren't meant to be killed by little ol' humans."

"Something bigger than?"

"Yeah, I'm sure a blast from a big enough airship cannon might be enough to blast those things away, but you can't really navigate one around there." Auron tossed a glance at the Rift parked in the distance. Rikku followed the line of his gaze and laughed, "Ha! No! Via Infinito is located underneath the _holy_ city of Bevelle. I know the guy who runs that place, he won't be too excited if I ask to blow holes down there to save someone who might not even be there. Last time I was there, I _snuck_ down there. The maze is something Bevelle isn't going public about anytime soon."

"But I've seen other unsents down there! Why would Bevelle keep such a terrible secret?"

Rikku realized there was so much more that Auron did not know. She wasn't sure if it was the buildup of her long day or the terror that Via Infinito presented that was getting under skin, but she wanted a way off from the subject. "Listen, Auron, if you want out of your situation, I can set you with someone who can send you to the Far Plane and-"

"I don't think I'm ready to die."

"Trust me. You've lived a great life."

Auron came to his feet with his hands on his hips in anger, "I am a monk of Yevon and I want to know what exactly they are hiding. As far as I'm concerned, it's just like an _Al Bhed_ to try and turn Spira against the temples with rumors of secret dungeons."

"Listen, you don't have to believe me, Auron, but you don't have to attack_ my_ people." Rikku could feel Gippal's persuasion behind those words. _Her_ people, people who hated Yevon's hypocritical teachings but still wanted to save their summoners from being sacrificed to a meaningless cause. Then they were slaughtered by Yevon's followers. Had Gippal been there, he would have laid Auron out.

For the first time in a long time, Rikku truly felt Al Bhed. She too despised all of Yevon's dirty little secrets and hated how the Guado had killed her people in the name of an empty religion and hated how unappreciated she felt on a daily basis. She tried so hard to save so many and yet the world still shunned her.

Then it hit her.

This was the legacy her father left her. This was what would help her to lead the people. This was the common tie that held together all the people in Bikanel. She saw it in Gippal then as she saw it in herself now.

Without another word, she gathered herself up and returned to her ship.

Auron did not call out or protest, but instead faded silently into the night.

**_Talk, talk ain't lot but it's still talk  
Gotta love how it's somehow all on me  
All the petty scenes and all the pretty things  
Say whatever you want 'cause I can laugh it off  
I can laugh it off_**

Gippal collected a pillow and blanket from his bed and carried it out to the couch in his living room. He had slowly gathered foresight into Rikku's mood swings. If his presumptions were correct, Rikku would return tonight, but he didn't owe her anything anymore. If there was a way to lock his doors and windows and have her truly shut out, he would. But that was never the case.

So he decided to sleep on the couch on the off chance she peaked into his bedroom window before breaking and entering.

As the night grew darker and colder, Gippal's threadbare blanket wasn't enough to get him through the night. The clock on the wall suggested it was the middle of the night, but he felt as though he had been trying to sleep for days. The chill that overcame him was just another excuse for insomnia.

Gippal walked the distance from his living room to his bedroom but came to a pause in his doorway.

Tangled in his cotton sheets with one long, tan leg jutting out from the knot, Rikku slept soundly with one arm tucked under her head full of braids. He approached her tentatively. He had some fun choices ahead of him:

Yank the sheets from her and kick her out.

Pour a bucket of water over her head and kick her out.

Or something entirely different.

Gippal left briefly to pick up his makeshift bed and returned to his bedside. He untangled the unconscious Rikku from his sheets, laid the comforter back across his bed, and pulled back the bed spread to gain entrance. He lay on his side with his back facing Rikku, but before he could close his eyes, she rolled toward him, pressing a bare torso against his bare back. Then, a smooth arm with long, soft fingertips trailed up his back and across his chest where they came to a rest limp just under his neck. Gippal lifted the back of that hand to his lips and kissed it with a smile.

He didn't need to turn over to know that she too was smiling. Just as his lids came to a close across his weary eyes, he heard her soft voice whisper, "_Cmaab, Meuh._ (Sleep, lion.)"

**_I must look like I'm running away  
To you at your faster pace  
Wonder what it is you could have seen in me_**

_"Well, Cid's girl, how was your first day home?" Gippal asked, standing in the entryway of her cramped tent. Night created a sultry backdrop to the sight of Gippal with his hand nonchalantly passing through his hair._

_Rikku had only returned to Bikanel at the request of Gippal who had scouted the Gullwings to do some excavating for the Machine Faction. Rikku wasn't to wild about the idea of coming home and getting dirt under her nails, but she had to admit Gippal was a perk to the job. It had been a long time since there had been a boy for her to take interest in. After years of chasing bad guys, Rikku could use a fling. _

_As far as physical attraction went, Gippal was perfect fling material._

_As far as being void of emotional attachment, Rikku wasn't sure if it could work._

_Rikku smiled to allow him entrance. He ducked under the flap and zipped the tent behind him to keep out the dust. "I forgot how hot it was here. We just spent a few days in Macalania Woods tracking down musicians for some show Yuna's putting on. The woods were freezing and now I'm frying."_

_Gippal remembered Rikku being a little more reserved in appearance than most Al Bhed women because of her position as meuh's daughter. But layers had shed since his last reunion with her. When she wore a yellow bikini with only a khaki skirt and scarf to accessorize, he wasn't sure where he should keep his eyes. Gippal had to remind himself that she was a childhood friend, the daughter of his idol and leader, a legendary guardian, and the little sister of his best friend. _

_He watched as she shook sand from her braids, "Just…um…keep hydrated."_

_"Hey, once a sand monkey, always a sand monkey. It's those beach bums we gotta watch out for," Rikku stated with a laugh._

_"How are the High Summor and company holding up next door?"he asked sarcastically._

_"Yuna's bent out of shape, sunburn. Paine? She's fine. But they're both passed out. They couldn't even make it to the showers. Glad we don't have share tents."_

_Gippal laughed nervously and grabbed a seat on Rikku's cot with her across from him. He rubbed at the back of his neck with a calloused hand, "I can relate to that. It's been a little hectic with all the excitement we've been getting in the Western Expense. Our radars have been spotting some strange fiends."_

_"Well, if we see anything, we'll handle it." Rikku watched as he soothed out a lump at the top of his back. "Here, let me help."_

_Rikku crawled onto the cot behind him and slipped a smooth hand under his shirt and pulled it over his head without permission. Gippal whimpered in protest but it soon turned into a moan of appreciation. "It's nice to feel hands that aren't dry," he breathed. Rikku's slender fingers prodded and pressed into his sturdy back, feeling every muscle and vertebrae._

_"They won't stay that way for long if I keep playing in the sand. But I gotta, say, being raised on engine grease really keeps the hands soft."_

_"I wish I could remember what engine grease felt like. I've been out in the desert for so long now. I haven't had any time for my projects"_

_Rikku leaned into him to talk into his ear. The thin yellow material didn't serve as much of a barrier between her warm breasts and his aching back. "All work and no play, huh?"_

_Gippal's eye went wide, wondering if she realized the effect her body was having on his. He tried to switch gears, "What about you? You've been running around Spira for a while now. We thought you would be home for good two years ago."_

_Rikku returned to her work on his lower back. Her braids would fall against his spine every now and again, reminding him just how close they were. "You know the rule, an object in motion will stay in motion."_

_"Your dad misses you," he said as an obvious cover for who really missed her._

_"My dad's busy turning Zanarkand into a theme park. Admit it," she teased, "you missed me."_

_"I'm gonna miss you a lot more now that I know how good of a masseuse you are." Gippal found himself referencing her massaging again no matter how he tried to keep his mind off the friction between them._

_"The girls and I have a good week here helping you out; you can sneak in any time for a touch up. Unless you gotta get back to Djose." And he did. Djose was an eminent reminder of all the work he had put on hold to meet Rikku out in the desert._

_Gippal pondered his options: Work or Rikku. So Gippal tossed his inhibitions, figuring it would only be a week away from Djose, and chose Rikku. With a playful laugh, he joked, "Well, if you're offering, I'm checking in." Gippal slipped down across the cot with his head on Rikku's lap._

_Rikku smiled down at him but stopped when she saw a large gash across his usually pristine abdominal muscles. "You mind telling me how that happened?"_

_"Remember those fiends I was telling ya about? If you see a giant cactuar out there, please resist the urge to run up and kiss it." Rikku was not in the least bit way timid from the point on. She had presented an invitation and he had accepted. She used her index finger to trace the gruesome scab. "Chicks dig scars, right?"_

_"On the right guy, they do."_

_Gippal snatched up her hand and looked up into her eyes. He watched his reflection in her spiraling blue eyes. "What are we doing, Rikku?"_

_"Nothing yet."_

_"Your father would kill me."_

_Rikku pulled herself out from under him and placed her head on his chest. "We don't have to get ourselves into trouble if you don't want." 'Oh, believe me, I do,' Gippal thought. "You can just shut off my lantern and we can go to sleep, just like this."_

_Gippal imagined all those nights with Baralai, Nooj, and Paine fighting for a lost cause with the Crimson Squad. He remembered sleeping on cold ground with his eyes wide after shutting off his lantern. Then he thought about how much easier it would have been had Rikku been pressed against him saying such things as she did now. _

_The way a man's mind can battle itself stunned even Gippal. Only logic served to clear his thoughts: Rikku wasn't a little girl anymore, there was no harm in being attracted to her._

_Gippal reached his hand over and extinguished the light._

**_I'm the evil one who said,  
"Gonna let everything just happen"  
Like my chest my ears are proud  
And collision is such an ugly sound  
I can hear you now_**

Warm sunlight spread across Gippal's face as his eyes slowly opened to another Bikanel sunrise, but not to Rikku's slim figure. For a moment, Gippal sat up straight and panicked, afraid that it was all a hallucination.

No.

He saw her.

He felt her.

He heard her whisper.

Gippal fell back onto his bed on the side Rikku had graced only hours ago. When he did, he heard a muffled crunch against the back of his head. Gippal stashed a hand under his heavy head and returned with a note written on the back of one of his tickets to see the Aurochs play Blitzball.

Gippal,  
See you there.  
I promise.  
-Rikku

He trusted those words completely, but memories still haunted him. Rikku never ceased to remind him of times passed. Though the promise was sound, it didn't erase his last memory of her wrapped up in him and leaving him empty the following morning.

**_Talk, talk ain't lot but it's still talk  
Gotta love how it's somehow all on me  
All the petty scenes and all the pretty things  
Say whatever you want 'cause I can laugh it off  
I can laugh if off_**

_Gippal's past few nights were spent in Rikku's tent. They reminisced, they joked, they shared playful touches like children wrestling, and of course, the cuddled each night into a warm slumber. It surprised Gippal how quickly he became her faithful dog, waiting patiently in her cot each night. She would arrive smelling of eucalyptus after her shower, hair slightly damp and pinned into fresh braids. She didn't need any permission to enter his arms and he didn't need any command to extend them to her. _

_Neither of them asked for this attraction._

_But it happened._

_The previous night, Rikku's last night before heading to the Calm Lands, they made it a point not to mention her eminent departure. Rikku didn't want to shatter Gippal's blissful illusion, and neither did he. He was content in thinking that their relationship would remain so struggle-free forever. Sure, he would love to kiss her and be with her in daylight, but if this was all he could get, he would not pass it up._

_From Rikku's end, she was happily disappointed. That first night, she assumed Gippal would revert to his playboy tactics and find himself underneath her khaki skirt, but he surprised her with his timid advances and lack of physicality. Though rollicking fun would have been interesting, she wasn't at all dismayed to have his company as just that, a companion._

_But the morning that followed her last night brought on the realization that summer love never lasted. Rikku did the only thing she could do to spare him and headed out long before he awoke._

_Gippal woke to the screaming sound of an airship engine being fired. His hands reached out for his tanned mistress but found themselves empty. With confused fury, Gippal shot himself out of her cot and out of the tent that had been cleared of all her personal possessions. _

_Normal Spirans had a tough time running in sand, but Al Bhed like Gippal could advance easily through the hazy, sandy winds and thick sludge-like sand that pulled at his feet. He caught up to the Celcius not a moment too soon._

_Rikku finished hoisting the fueling hose out of the tank before retracting it back to platform. She wiped the sweat from her brow and pulled the goggles from her face. Her vision returned to her after the blurry goggles had been removed. Gippal approached quickly. She knew she would have to confront him before leaving._

_Gippal didn't make her departure any easier as he stood in the sand in his bare feet and shirtless. The gash across his torso healed quite nicely. Gippal had joked only nights before that its progression was due to Rikku's healing presence. And here was Rikku ready to rip open a new hole for him. _

_"Okay, I'm just gonna ask it," he began, "where are you going? I mean, I know you said you were gonna leave. But I thought maybe...you changed your mind."_

_Rikku bit her lip shyly with her head down like she did when she kept something from him. With a strong hand, he tilted her head back up to look into his eye. "Yuna decided we're going after Vegnagun."_

_Gippal couldn't decide if he should be shocked or not. It was just like Rikku to chase down the impossible. But Vegnagun was scarier than the impossible. "I can't let you do that."_

_"I don't care," she said flatly._

_"Rikku, Vegnagun isn't some tinker toy." Gippal paused momentarily. "…I saw some things when I was in the Crimson Squad."_

_Rikku offered him her full attention, "What did you see? What is it?"_

_But Gippal dismissed it. He countered with shifty glances about her, "I…I can't talk about it. It's none of your business. Just stay away from it. Nooj and Baralai and I will handle it."_

_"It's too late. We're determined. We checked out Bevelle and Vegnagun's gone missing. And now Baralai and Nooj are too…but I bet you already knew that." Gippal turned away. "You know what they're planning, don't you?" Gippal still didn't look. "Did you know Baralai tried to KILL us when we snuck into Bevelle."_

_Gippal fought off aggravation, "You had no business down there anyway. Stay away from Vegnagun."_

_"How can I be sure that you're trying to keep me safe when it's so obvious that you're just trying to save your own ass? Do you have something to do with Vegnagun's existence?" Gippal shook his head silently. "Listen…these last nights really made me…happy. I missed this…I missed us-"_

_"Well I won't be here if you come back," he interrupted. "I'm not a machina. You can't just dismantle me and figure me out. I got my own stuff going on and so do you. If you're looking to start something between us then we'd both have to hold off on saving the world. Are you ready to do that? You think you could give up the world for ten minutes and just…be with me?" He phrased it as a question but meant it as a statement of what he was already willing to do for her. _

_Rikku felt silent, imagining a happy life in the desert with her knight. She imagined waking up in his arms every morning and kissing him to sleep every night._

_Then she imagined Spira. The fighting, the wars, the hatred that spread between the races even during the Eternal Calm._

_But Rikku couldn't say yes even with Gippal's eye boring a hole through her soul. _

_"Go," he commanded quietly._

_"I can't have us end this way, Gippal. We can't not be friends. You fill some sort of longing in me I don't understand. I just need you to support me. I'd do it for you."_

**_I can hear you now_**  
-Jimmy Eat World

* * *

Well, my peeps, it's been real. I've got a lot of stuff planned for the next chappy. Don't think for a minute that I'm done using Auron either. Oh, it gon' get interesting.

* * *


	5. Amazed

Hello, again, loyal fan(s). Hope it's…enjoyable? Disclaimer: I don't own jack-shit. But SquareEnix does and I'm barrowing their characters for amusement purposes only. (That's a really snarky disclaimer!) So, what should you know about this installment? During Chapter 3 of the game when you go to Djose, Gippal mentions that he and Rikku used to be a cute couple and then Rikku becomes defensive. When you return to the Celcius, Paine mentions that Rikku is obviously hiding something. This is where my first flashback here comes in. Also, I barrowed the scene where Home is getting destroyed from the Final Fantasy X game script. I, of course, added some of my own stuff on the end, but that's how it goes. Also, the flashback with Brother and Gippal referrs to when Gippal goes after Vegnagun and Ixion is attacking the temple in Djose. Lots of the workers die. Sad face.

* * *

_**It's amazing to me,  
I can't seem to say what I'm doing here.  
My tongue is all twisted around the air.  
I'm looking for words that were so well rehearsed,  
But I can't find them anywhere.**_

Gippal's technologically advanced personal airship – a breeze. Gippal's technologically advanced desert museum – no problem. Even Gippal's bedroom – easy peezy lemon squeezey. But a bedroom on the 20th floor of an apartment building in central Luca – a little on the tricky side.

However, Rikku had to cat climb up those glass walls to Paine's house not only for business purposes, but to prove that she could. Rikku inched slowly like a caterpillar using a pulley system and setting up anchors along the way. She left the Rift parked in the bay that surrounded the base of the complex. It seemed like extravagant way to die. She promised to come back to Gippal and a part of her promised to return the ship someday. But if she didn't make it to the 20th floor soon, neither would happen smoothly.

Rikku scaled, floor by floor, counting the windows on the outside precisely and hoping there weren't any two-story apartments stacked because she was going to bust in quite unannounced.

The sweat poured shamelessly underneath the same black outfit she used to sneak into _Kas uv dra Tacand._ Funny how she could sneak around the desert without too much perspiration, but slinking around the bay in the middle of the night hundreds of feet above the ground sent her body into an inferno.

When she made it to what she assumed was the 20th floor, she used a modified gun mage pistol to cast a contained firaga flame. It warped the glass of the window instantly like a laser. Just for giggles, she chopped out an entrance in the shape of cactuar and slipped inside the dark apartment.

Rikku used her night vision goggles to scan the room for Paine's bedroom. Unlike the masculine layout of the Rift, Paine's living room showed signs of human life. It wasn't something drastic with vases of iris and welcoming signs that read 'Home is where the heart is,' but Paine displayed a few photos and personal affects. In a glass case atop a wooden table behind the couch slept Paine's favorite sword with the large silver skull separating the handle and the blade. Above the sphere-casting television, a photo of Yuna and Rikku smiling playfully in the hot springs on top of Mt. Gagazet, with Paine in the background trying hard to stay serious. Rikku giggled to herself, thinking about how Brother wanted so desperately to keep the photo after he took it because Yuna was in a bathing suit. How Paine came out with the picture, Rikku would never know.

A dim reflection on the sphere-caster's screen alerted Rikku that she wasn't alone. "You're a really light sleeper, Doctor P," Rikku said.

Paine stood behind the couch with her hands balled into fists, ready to fight, but she lowered them when she heard Rikku's light voice. "Rikku?"

Rikku unzipped and slipped off the mask portion of her cat suit and shook out her braids. She gestured to the window with the missing catuar. "Who else?"

The lights shuttered to life after Paine flicked a light switch on the nearest wall. "I have…_so_ many questions."

The Al Bhed intruder closed the distance between them. Paine remained cold and unsure, but Rikku wrapped two gangly arms around her ex-partner's neck and squeezed. "I know. And all I can really say is 'I'm sorry.' I've really missed you."

Paine hugged her back loosely, a struggle for the usually stoic swordstress. "You must need something if you're back."

"Hate to say it, but I do," Rikku replied. "But I'll be sticking around."

"Is that my reward?" Pain questioned.

"I just…needed a break from all of the excitement. We had a lot of adventures, but I needed time to figure out who Rikku was and it wasn't happening when we were running around all the time. I don't expect you to understand, you've always seemed so figured out."

Paine offered the intruder a spot on the couch but didn't join her. Instead, she pulled the photo down from the entertainment set and stared at the Rikku's smiling face then back at the intruder. "I knew you were alive somewhere, but that didn't keep me from worrying." Paine sighed and replaced the photo. "Have you seen Gippal?"

"Why do you ask?" Rikku asked shyly.

Paine cocked her eyebrow, meaning _you know why_.

**_With you, there's no easy answer it's true.  
You change the equation I add up to,  
And all of the things that I thought I knew,  
You turn it around_**

_"Alright, fess up," Paine commanded to the still blushing Rikku._

_Rikku turned to the window. She hoped escaping to the cabin area of the Celcius would keep her free from her gossiping crew mates, but Paine slipped through the cracks. "Fess what?"Rikku asked, knowing full well what Paine was after._

_"Do you ALWAYS act like a school girl around Machine Faction leaders?"_

_Rikku laughed nervously, "Nope, just that one." Paine folded her arms across her chest and tapped her foot anxiously awaiting Rikku's oncoming explosive confession._

_1…_

_2…_

_3…_

_"Okay, okay! Quit looking at me like that!"Rikku climbed down from her perch atop the cabin window sill and down onto her bed. "I grew up with Gippal on Bikanel. We weren't really a couple, everyone just assumed we were because I was the Al Bhed leader's daughter and he was the most prideful sand monkey out there."_

_"Ah ha. Anything else I should know?" Rikku beamed. Gossip spread like wildfire between Yuna, Rikku, and Brother, or as Shinra referred to them, the Sorority Girls, Brother included. "Anything else I should know and NOT tell Yuna? Swordstress' honor."_

_"I sort of had a thing for him. But I ended up following Yuna around Spira and didn't really have time for him. When Sin was defeated I went home, but had no idea where Gippal had gone. I had just as soon assumed he died in the Crimson Squad. Come to find out Gippal had just shipped out to Djose to turn the temple into a base of operations for the Machine Faction. Home had been destroyed and my father was determined to rebuild it. Vrother and I wanted to help, but he gave us the Celcius and sent us away. That's when we dedicated our free time to hunting spheres. Things were going fine until Yuna came across that stupid sphere of you-know-who. I was perfectly content with forgetting Gippal ever existed." Rikku let out a deep sigh of despair. "After the Guado attacked, I ended up in Bikanel looking for Yuna at the Summoner's Sanctuary. There were hundreds of Al Bhed dying everywhere. I searched for Gippal, but my dad said no one had seen him. I thought I would dwell on that forever, but then everyone reminded me that I still had a duty as a guardian. I hadn't thought of Gippal once since Home was attacked. Nor had a seen him."  
_

_"Then why are you still blushing every time you say his name?"_

_Rikku shot Paine another glare, "Did you see the man? He's not exactly a malboro. Just seeing him made me think of everything I left to fight Sin. I had a home, I had my family, I had my best friend. And now I'm…just along for the ride."_

_"Maybe you could use this as a second chance. I'm sure if you talked to Gippal you'd find that he felt the same way." Paine already knew he did. She spent months touring Spira with Gippal and the rest of the Crimson Squad. She didn't like to admit it, but she loved hearing Gippal speak of Rikku. It reminded Paine that love still existed in such a harsh and unforgiving world. But Rikku, nor the rest of the Gullwings, knew of her past as a Crimson Squad member at the time and she intended to keep it that way for the time being._

_"I'm not really interested in putting my heart out there and getting it blasted down. I've got enough on my plate keeping up with Yuna. I mean, we're supposed to be dismantling Vegnagun but she's signed us up to go treasure hunting in the damned desert. We're gonna be so freaking miserable out there. You have no idea how freaking hot it is out there."_

_"Are you gonna be okay?" Paine asked through a laugh.  
_

_Rikku shrugged. "Someday."_

**_I'm amazed,  
When push comes to shove what I'd give to you-  
Everything._**

"I um…spoke with him," Rikku lied. Paine continued cocking an admonishing brow at her friend. "Okay…we may have reunited with a previous fling. But I once again find myself trying to balance loving the stupid sand monkey and saving the world. Well…saving the world on a smaller scale this time."

Paine looked deeply into Rikku's conflicted eyes and saw that same confused girl looking out the window of the Celcius, full of romance and nostalgia. She could still hear Gippal referring to Rikku as 'the prettiest girl in Spira' as the Crimson Squad sat around a fire. Gippal and Rikku put so much on hold for Vegnagun and Sin. Paine wanted to fix that this time around. Though she came off as distant and cold, her friends' happiness still mattered greatly to Paine. "Alright, alright, what do you need?"

"I wouldn't ask anyone to do this, I want you to know that," Rikku began. "We need to get back into Via Infinito." Rikku and Paine both shuddered at the mention of the hellish place. "The lift can send us down the bottom level. All we need to do is poke around and see if anything weird's down there."

"_Anything weird!_ Rikku, that whole place is a madhouse of the dead."

"I know, Paine. But…you've heard me and Yuna talk about the guardian Auron, right?"

Paine nodded. "Keep in mind that _Sir_ Auron basically wrote the book on being a warrior. All of my sword skills are meant to imitate his art."

"Yeah, that's nice." Paine rolled her eyes. Rikku's maturity was waving, but it somehow made it more comfortable for Paine, like she was just out for another adventure. "Well, he's somehow found himself in Via Infinito as the much younger version of himself and quite dead, might I add."

"Tell me you weren't sneaking around down there. If the Yevon monks catch you, they'll sick the precepts guards on you."

Rikku shook her head, "I'm not suicidal. He appears nightly in clusters of pyrflies."

"Then this isn't just a matter of poking around and gathering information then, is it?"

"Well, I'd like to know what's going on, but it wouldn't hurt to get that whole place cleaned up and sent."

"_Sent_?" Paine said shocked. "You don't know very many summoners-"

"I know, I know, I got some explaining to do with Yunie too, but are _you_ in or not?"

Paine looked around her quaint and bland apartment. She could do with a vacation from impending boredom. "I'm in. But on one condition."

"Anything."

"_You're_ not allowed to come."

Rikku scoffed. "Well that makes things difficult."

"You're the one who complained about not getting your chance with Gippal because you _had_ to save the world. So, to spare you from being a hypocrite, leave Via Infinito to me and you go get the boy.

"You can't be serious. You can't do this alone!"

Paine put up her hand to silence Rikku, "Don't worry. I'll put together a crew."

Rikku glanced at the time and then out the window. The sun's debut was casting a golden glow across the bay. She knew she didn't have the time to fly back to Bikanel and then back to Luca to meet Gippal for the game. "Okay, I trust you. One last thing, mind if I crash on the couch? I've got an appointment in Luca later."

"I don't even wanna know. Consider fixing the window as payment." Paine tossed a pillow from the couch at her, "One question, couldn't you just have easily _knocked_."

"It's an art what I do, really."

**_I'm amazed,  
The hallways I wouldn't mind crawling through,  
And I'd do it for days and for days._**

Gippal was chauffeured to his private box seats far above the crowd but with a great view of the game. The stadium filled quickly and then the announcers called for the game's commencement. Torn into two, Gippal couldn't decide to root for the newly active Wakka and his famous front-left player, Tidus, or to root for his home team, the Psyches.

When blitz was called, Eigaar towered above Wakka. Funny that a race that comes from a land where this is generally no water would be genetically disposed to be better at Blitzball. Eigaar launched the ball behind him and to Blappa. It was common knowledge that if Blappa got his hand on the ball, he would shoot. He had a pretty dangerous volley shot with a great spin to it. There weren't too many goalies in existence that could stop that torpedo.

But Wakka slowly earned his keep as captain of the team. His strong dark arms sprung up and let the ball slip perfectly into his two broad palms. His fingers gripped for dear life then shot it over to Tidus at the far end of the tank. Though Blappa could trip up any goalie with his volley shot, Tidus could knock out two players and get the goal with his advanced Jecht Shot, which was exactly what happened next.

Tidus slammed the ball into Lakkam and Judda then past Nimrook. Since Tidus' revival, the ex-Ace hadn't missed a goal.

The board lit up to display the newly acquired goal on behalf of the Aurochs, then the crowd went wild for Tidus' showmanship. He blew a kiss to a private set of bleachers where Yuna sat with Brother who was wringing his program, cursing at Nimrook for missing the catch.

"_Crufuvv _(Showoff)," Rikku called from behind the watchful meuh. Gippal brought the complementary binoculars up to his eye and then spun around to view Rikku. Her spiraling teal eye caught itself in his view while she put her hands on her hips. Rikku snatched the binoculars from him. "Gippal," she whispered.

He laughed audibly and offered her a seat next to him. "Forty five seconds in and we're already down by a point."

"Not rooting for your friends?"

"It's a loose-loose situation. I might as well root for the team I'm sponsoring."

Rikku used the binoculars to scan the stadium. She focused in on her brother, still shouting about Tidus' goal. Yuna sat next to him with an undeserved sense of pride. _It's not like you made the goal_, Rikku thought. Lula entered with the toddling Vidina behind her before sitting with the ex-summoner. Rikku watched them exchange pleasantries. Lulu had been slowly turning into a mother lately. Her wardrobe had suffered a dramatic change. Most Besaid mothers wore long blue robes with a full pant leotard beneath. Lulu had taken on the change with the exception of the color, black. Her hair had also been cropped much shorter but with a few braids, as before. Vidina resembled her father masterfully. She set herself up at her mother's feet, using an old moomba doll her mother once used to enhance her spell casting skills.

Then Paine arrived. Paine resembled Lulu's long lost child, rivaling her in brooding beauty. Rikku watched as Paine whispered something Lulu's ear and the couple exited, leaving Vidina in Yuna's care.

"Are you listening?" Gippal called.

Rikku let her binoculars fall to her lap then looked over to her partner with a clueless expression. "Hmm?"

"I said I was surprised you kept your promise," Gippal stated.

"Hey, I had a free ticket to see your team lose."

Gippal frowned. "I was saving that for your father. I wanted to talk to him about a business arrangement I'm planning with Praetor Baralai and President Tarryn."

"Wow, look at you. _Business arrangement_? And since when do you refer to your chums by their formal names?" Rikku nudged him playfully.

"Listen, I'm meuh now. I have an assistant. My signature is on many important documents. I've changed. Which brings me to a point I've been meaning to make. If you wanna act like nothing's going on between us, then you better start addressing me like I'm the meuh, we'll start over from scratch."

"But?"

"But what?" Gippal questioned.

"What's my other option?"

Gippal laughed at the notion of there being another option. He practiced the first explanation in front of his mirror all morning. He expected her to accept the terms. "The other option is…um…we go back to _then_."

"When?"

"Whatever we were before?"

"As I recall, we weren't anything before. We just wanted to be. Which seems to be where we'd be if we started all over. It's what we do."

Gippal sat defeated. "What made you come back last night?"

"You knew I would."

"But what finally sealed the deal."

Rikku shrugged nonchalantly. "I hadn't really looked over your positive aspects before," she lied. "Then I really thought it over and remembered, oh yeah, you're not half bad."

"Thanks?" Gippal nudged her the way she had before. "It was the body right? You missed my superior exterior. It's okay, swoon. Everyone else does." Rikku laughed happily. She'd be the first to admit that his confidence was a turn on, even if it was completely overdone. "Hey, listen, your father _will_ be meeting me here…soon. So unless you wanna explain your presence to the old fart, I suggest heading out." Rikku slipped the binoculars into her side bag, her subconscious thief taking control. This gesture remained unnoticed by Gippal. As she stood to exit, Gippal clenched her wrist with his gloved hand. "Wait. Promise me you'll be there when I get back."

Rikku nodded. It would take a while to earn his trust again. "I promise."

Gippal tugged her down to him and planted a quick kiss on her soft pink lips, "I'll expect that to still be there when I come back." Rikku smiled and exited.

**_I'm amazed, I'm amazed,  
I'm amazed, I'm amazed,  
The places you're taking me to._**

"Rikku?" Gippal called as he entered his house. The sky outside cast grey shadows through the window. After scanning the living room, a crackling noise told Gippal all he needed to know. "It's just a little dry thunder," he shouted throughout the house.

Gippal started getting a little paranoid after the third thunder strike sounded and he heard a soft whimper but still couldn't see her.

_Boom.  
Whimper._

"Rikku?" He checked the living room, the kitchen cabinets, under his bed.

_Boom.  
Whimper_.

Finally, Gippal thought to check the bathroom. He figured if she was hiding in there he didn't need to knock.

Rikku lay sleeping in his tub, clenching her knives for dear life. He knelt down on the floor next to the tub and stroked her forehead. "Hey?" She didn't budge. He watched her lips tremble in fear. He suddenly found himself thinking about all the quick kisses he had to steal from those lips. How he longed devilishly to have her, for once, be the one to steal a kiss from him.

He pushed the thought away before giving her a quick nudge. Rikku burst to life, flailing her arms and knives about like a berserked ochu. One of her spindly elbows caught a direct hit with his temple, sending him to the floor immediately. Rikku dropped her knives into the tub and leaned over the tub walls to see if he was okay. "Gippal?"

_Boom.  
Whimper_.

Slowly and with great caution, Rikku slipped herself out of the empty tub one gangly limb at a time. She stared intently at the sleeping meuh. He didn't seem like much of a leader, unconscious on the ground with his hand lying across his chest. Rikku studied his face. She loved how she found every single detail about him attractive.

She loved his eye patch. It's sad to think that an accidental flash grenade explosion rendered his eye blind, but the way that he used an eye patch to get it out of the way made him so…_badass_.

She loved the tiny diamond studs in both of his ears and the tiny diamond barrettes he clipped into his immaculately trimmed side burns. They had been gifts from her a long time ago. Rikku was only nine and still unsure of what to buy a male as a birthday gift. Gippal wouldn't have worn barrettes from any girl's hair.

She loved his smooth rose lips. They were soft like tiny petals on his dusky tan face. With two tentative fingers, she swept across the lips. It seemed like every time she encountered him, he found an excuse to press those lips onto hers, needing absolutely no permission.

Yet she hovered above him wondering if she could return the favor.

_Boom_._  
Whimper_.

Rikku used his begging lips as a beautiful distraction. Still kneeling down by his side, she bent at her hip and brought her lips to a standstill gently on top of his. She felt his lips curl into a smile beneath hers. "Gippal!" she groaned with playful anger.

His good eye looked into her eyes gleefully, "What took you so long?"

"I thought I knocked you out for good."

Gippal sat up and Rikku pushed him hard against the tub wall. Gippal made a shocked expression and pushed her back. The two play fought for a few moments until Gippal allowed himself to be pinned down by the slender Al Bhed girl.

Gippal once again wondered where he should look. He wanted to look into her eyes, but her breasts were heaving heavily underneath a very small amount of material just inches in front of his face.

Rikku remained blissfully unaware of the sexual tension at first. That was until she felt Gippal shift beneath her. Her knees were planted firmly on either side of his hips, causing her skirt to rise up a few inches. When Gippal struggled slightly, she felt his belt buckles above the crotch of his pants pass gently beneath the opening in her skirt. Rikku pondered her next move.

Gippal offered up a suggestion, "Kiss me." It was more of a command than a request.

_Boom_._  
Whimper_.

"Kiss me," he said, staring straight into her eyes this time.

Rikku leaned in to oblige, and passion took over.

Every moment she admired his smile, or swooned over his over confident mannerisms, or drooled over his muscular build was focused into this moment.

At first the kiss was simple, shy. The kiss simply said, _I've been waiting for this moment_.

Then, without hesitance, Rikku's lips parted and Gippal followed, both Al Bhed youths closing their eyes. The kiss begging, _I want this moment_.

And true to any first passionate kiss, Rikku slithered the tip of her tongue across his bottom lip into his mouth. The kiss screaming, _I need this moment._

The kiss quickly turned savage as Rikku's tongue darted about Gippal's mouth like probing machina, counting molars and canines, testing the smoothness of the plane of his tongue. She lingered on the taste of his mouth, neither bitter nor sweet, but a pure aphrodisiac all on its own. If Spira could find a way to bottle that taste, it would provide energy to the planet for centuries.

Gippal steadied himself with one palm flat on the bathroom tile and the other wrapping around Rikku's lower back to pull her tighter to him. Rikku jutted her long legs around his hips as he slowly came to a stand, never letting her lips escape his.

After moments of having her hands clasped behind his neck to cling to him as he carried her from the bathroom, Rikku gauged his strength and realized her hands would be better suited for other things. Gippal let his hands settle under backside while she laced her fingers through his blonde tendrils.

_Boom_._  
Passionate moan_.

Still roaming each other's oral caverns, Gippal lowered Rikku to his bed and she violently pulled him down with her. Rikku's skirt had traveled even further up due to their trip from the bathroom. Gippal longed to touch what was underneath but was still doing what he considered 'taking it slow.'

Rikku, however, was swimming in an ocean of ecstasy. She couldn't remember a more perfect kiss and doubted there ever would be. Like a hungry addict, she clawed gently at his back, loosening the buckles that came to a cross across his back and fastened his shoulder guards. They fell to the floor with a loud clunk.

Gippal saw this as an open invitation to do some undressing of his own, but still at a moderate tempo. He wanted to judge her willingness with something small, so he wiggled a finger under the loop of wool about her neck and tugged her gradient colored scarf loose. He bunched the soft material into his fist and dropped it to the ground. He seemed to be in the clear.

With Rikku's neck naked, he found a landing strip for more hot blooded nips from his poisonous lips. Rikku's eyes burst open with intoxication. She ripped off her black gloves behind his back and with smooth bare hands, she ran a hand under his shirt and pulled at it furiously. Gippal recognized her impatience but didn't want to part from her neck with his chin resting just about her breasts.

_Boom_._  
Passionate moan_.

Rikku gave him a soft shove to push him away from her neck. She brought her hands back to the front of him and trailed them up his abdominals and then chest, pushing the lavender shirt up with them. Gippal used one hand to yank the shirt over his head and the other fondled the strings of her yellow top that were wrapped around her neck. He got the scarf off without resistance, he wondered if her top would be the same.

He decided to take the plunge.

With a quick tug, the strings freed themselves of one another. All he would have to do is pull them down and he would finally have access to the forbidden flesh that hid beneath the paper thin bars.

Rikku had occupied herself with tracing a finger over the scar he received during a battle with the fiend out in the desert. She remembered him saying it healed better because she was around. She wondered if enough touching of the scar could erase it completely. That was until she noticed her top being relieved from her chest.

Hesitance fleeted in her mind. She wanted this to continue so badly, and she knew that would require disposing of a lot of garments, but how ready was she?

Unfortunately, neither of them would be the judge.

"Meuh?" Shrina's voice called from behind the front door.

The voice was accompanied by angry knocking and then an angrier voice. "Gippal? _Ubah drec tuun, oui dnyedun!_ (Open this door, you traitor!)"

Gippal removed himself from Rikku's hypnotizing kiss and looked down at her. Her top was so close to exposing something he had been waiting to see since he was in his early teens. The devilish boy inside him contemplated pulling down, offering a quick kiss, and letting her put herself away, but he could wait. She wasn't going anywhere. "Was that your brother?" Gippal asked in a hoarse whisper.

_Boom_._  
Frustrated groan_.

"Sounded like it," Rikku said while rolling her eyes.

Gippal pounded his fists angrily on the mattress on either side of Rikku. The turbulence caused the mattress to bounce along with Rikku atop it. She quickly brought her hands to her chest to ensure that her top didn't flop off with her. Luckily, she looped the strings back together around her neck before anything could happen. Gippal silently cursed the intruders even more. "_E ys lusehk!_ (I am coming!)" Gippal crossed to the door but spun back around and pinned Rikku back down. "Just…don't-don't move!" he stammered. Gippal opened the front door just enough to poke his head out and gawk at Shrina trying desperately to hold back a ferociously mad Brother. "Heeeeey guys," Gippal greeted innocently.

"I tried to tell him you were busy, but he wouldn't have it," Shrina said through grunts, holding Brother by his suspenders.

"_Oui veaht!_ (You fiend!)," shouted Brother. "_Ruf luimt oui bid y bnela uh uin baubma! Fa femm hud fung vun Yevonites!_ (How could you put a price on our people! We will not work for Yevonites!)"

"_Tu hud pa pynpynel. Dra tyoc uv vaitehk fedr dra Yevonites yna ujan._ (Do not be barbaric. The days of feuding with the Yevonites are over)," responded Gippal.

Shinra groaned, "I already tried explaining that to him."

Gippal slipped through the open door and shut it quietly behind him. But as soon as he was in punching range, Brother tossed a hard fistful of knuckles into Gippal's jaw. Shinra tried wrenching him back by the suspenders again but Gippal commanded, "Let him go. Let's get this over with."

Brother attempted to send another punch his way, but Gippal captured his wrist with one hand and retaliated with his own fist.

**_Wait, I thought I had this down.  
I built all my cages and my hideout.  
And I covered all my bases,  
I locked the door,  
I shut all my windows_**

_Brother tossed Gippal's head back into the wall of dra Frynv uv dra Zu. The Celcius had finally made its return to Bikanel. Soon the Gullwings, Nooj, Baralai, Gippal, and Tidus would be meeting in Luca to make an announcement. But Brother had made a special trip back to Bikanel to confront Gippal. He found the Machine Faction leader on his way to his own airship. Brother exited hastily and caught up to Gippal in the nick of time._

_Brother jammed a hard knee into Gippal's groin, causing him to fall to his knees in pain. Brother grabbed him by a fistful of hair and tilted his head back to look into his eyes. Gippal forgot that underneath the tattoos and the mohawk was a very strong, very tall Al Bhed man. _

_"_Oui mavd dras du tea! _(You left them to die!)" Brother shouted._

_Gippal fought to regain his breath and strength. "_E fahd…yvdan…Vegnagun. E luimt hud cdyo yht vekrd eh Djose. _(I went…after…Vegnagun. I could not stay and fight in Djose.)"_

_"_Ouin ufh sah! Fa fydlrat dras tea eh dra dasbma, tavahtehk ouin machina! _(Your own men! We watched them die in the temple, defending your machine!)"_

_Gippal struggled to shake his head as Brother threw his head back against the hangar wall. "_E ryt du…ku…yvdan Vegnagun. E ryt…du bnudald- (_I had to…go…after Vegnagun. I had…to protect-)"_

_"_Ouin baubma!? _(Your people!?)" Brother interrupted._

_"Rikku!" he corrected. Brother knelt down to come to eye level with Gippal. Gippal could barely keep his head up and blood poured uncontrollably out from his mouth. He wasn't sure if there was a loose tooth or he bit his tongue. "_Cra dumt sa cra fyc kuehk yvdan Vegnagun. E ryt du cdub ed vencd. E tet hud fyhd ran kaddehk rind. _(She told me she was going after Vegnagun. I had to stop it first. I did not want her getting hurt.)"_

_"_Aaaah, cu oui yna ran ghekrd, oac? Oui fuimt mad ouin baubma tea du naclia ran? _(Aaaah, so you are her knight, yes? You would let your people die to rescue her?)" Gippal nodded, finally hearing the sad truth to his recent actions. "_Oui lyhhud luhdyeh ran. Ev cra fyhdc du vekrd Vegnagun, cra kuac fedruid bansecceuh. Ev oui fyhd du pa ran ghekrd dryh oui lyhhud pa y maytan palyica oui femm pa vummufehk y kenm fru ec yc ihbnateldypma yc dra feht. _(You cannot contain her. If she wants to fight Vegnagun, she goes without permission. If you want to be her knight than you cannot be a leader because you will be following a girl who is as unpredictable as the wind.)"_

_"_Fryd tu oui fyhd sa du tu drah? _(What do you want me to do then?)" Gippal pleaded._

_Brother remained quiet for a moment. He rubbed his chin in contemplation. "_Oui pa ran ghekrd. E femm dyga lyna uv dra vyldeuh. _(You be her knight. I will take care of the faction.)"_

_Gippal scoffed at the idea. "_E ys hud mayjehk so vyldeuh eh ouin ryhtc. (_I am not leaving my faction in your hands.)"_

_"_E femm hud mayja so cecdan eh ouin ryhtc drah. _(I will not leave my sister in your hands then.)"_

_"_Druca so uhmo ubdeuhc? _(Those my only options?)"_

_Brother tossed him a greasy bandana, "_Drehg ed ujan. _(Think it over.)"_

**_But you, you creep in like a whisper it's true,  
I try not to listen, yeah, but I hear you.  
I'm not really sure just what it is you do,  
But do it again._**

"_Fro yna oui cu yhkno? E ys tuehk drec vun dra vihtehk._ (Why are you so angry? I am doing this for the funding.)"

Shinra shook his head in dismay, "He's convinced it has something to do with Rikku of all people."

"_Ajano desa Rikku ec ynuiht, **oui** cdynd cmebbehk ib._ (Every time Rikku is around, _you_ start slipping up.)" Brother said.

Gippal could only laugh at the situation. Was he caught? "_Cu, tet oui red sa palyica oui drehg E ys retehk Rikku un palyica E cumt uin funganc du Yevon?_ (So, did you hit me because you think I am hiding Rikku or because I sold our workers to Yevon?")

Brother's whole shook in frenzy of confusion. Gippal's logic tore down a small layer of Brother's defense. "Uuurgh! _Pudr!_ (Both!)" Gippal laughed again, frustrating Brother further. "_Dra funganc femm dyga dra suhao, pid frana ec so cecdan?_ (The workers will take the money, but where is my sister?)"

"_Ruf cruimt E ghuf? Ruf lyh E vummuf dra feht? _(How should I know? How can I follow the wind?)"

Brother tossed a rugged slap across Gippal's smug grin, "_Tu hud ica so funtc ykyehcd sa. Ev E veht oui yna retehk ran vnus sa, oui femm haat suna dryh drec pnyd du luhdyeh sa. _(Do not use my words against me. If I find you are hiding her from me, you will need more than this brat to contain me.)"

Shinra glared at the comment. "Come on, _Jumlyhu_ (Volcano), let's get you back to your cage." Shinra pulled the still seething Brother by his suspender straps.

Gippal slipped back into the house, fully prepared to start where he left off. Sitting on the bed, mumbling into a CommSphere, she certainly didn't look like a prisoner that he hid from her brother. Who was she talking to?

Gippal quietly approached his room, avoiding the open doorway. He listened intently. He could barely make out Rikku's words, but was almost sure that the voice on the other end of the CommSphere belonged to Paine.

"Yuna's not coming, but…I've managed to provide us with someone much better," Paine explained, also in a hushed tone.

"Who?" Rikku questioned.

"Don't be alarmed…Baralai."

Rikku scanned the room for Gippal. She assumed he was still outside fending off Brother. "Baralai? Wow, wow, wow. I thought we weren't gonna let him know that we knew about Via Infinito?"

"He was going to find out eventually."

Rikku still had a tough time trusting Baralai after hearing about his possessions when the Crimson Squad dealt with Shuyin. Hearing that Baralai had tried to kill Gippal never sat well with her. "Who's gonna be babysitting him?"

"The entire crew consists of me, Baralai, and Lulu."

"She agreed to come along?"

Rikku watched Paine shrug through the CommSphere. "I think she's having postpartum depression. She's not quite a mother yet."

"And we're just gonna take advantage of that?"

Again, Paine shrugged, "We'll need a black mage. Why not? Besides, if anything gets to dangerous, Buddy will be waiting in the wings the Rift."

Rikku frowned, "I guess that means I'll be immobile for a while." Gippal smiled at this idea. "I trust you to handle this. But if it gets too dangerous get outta there. You guys are more important to me than the mission."

Gippal put his ear to the wall, hoping to hear what _the mission _was, but Paine changed the subject, "How are things with Gippal?"

"They're…progressing." Gippal couldn't make heads or tails of the comment. "Listen, I don't mean to cut you off, but Gippal's gonna be back any minute and-"

"Wait! He doesn't know you're planning this?"

Rikku shook her head, "As a leader's kid, I know a thing or two about politics. I shouldn't even be thinking of sneaking around Bevelle. If something went wrong, it could be traced back to Gippal."

"You really do care for him, don't you?"

"It's my country too," Rikku defended. "I'm gonna get out of here. Good luck."

"Same to you."

Rikku disconnected the CommSphere and let Paine's image fade.

Gippal clenched a fist tightly and released. Then, again. Then, another time. Whatever she planned she did it with the intent of him not knowing. The issue of trust still brought uneasy feelings. Then again, he hid his fair share of secrets. He didn't mean to hide his relations with Bevelle from her, but he sure wasn't going to let her in anytime soon. Gippal hated the feeling of hiding something from her. Was it because she could potentially embarrass him and break the deal? Was it because she, like Brother and Cid, would never approve of dealing with the Yevonites? Whatever the reason, the sick twisting in his stomach remained to remind him he was no better than her.

There had been a time when every minute detail had been displayed in black and white for the couple to share equally, the foundation of any friendship. Only recently had Gippal begun to wonder if the missing years harbored more secrets than Rikku was willing to share. And what of his own? Gippal had a life of his own during the Crimson Squad and the years to follow.

"What are you thinking about?" Rikku asked shyly from the doorway. She watched as he continued to clench his fist and breathe heavily. His mouth still fed on the dregs of passion, but his mind fed elsewhere.

He forced a smile, "Just trying to power down."

Though his lips and body still called to her, Rikku knew his respective passion had dimmed. "Did I do something wrong?" she asked, concern in her voice. Rikku genuinely wanted to hand herself over to the man in front of her, mind, body, and heart, but his palms no longer waited to receive. An invisible wall had been constructed in the few moments he escaped her. A part of her wanted to rip and claw at that wall, make him vulnerable to her again, but something told her Gippal was putting an unspoken distance between them for his own protection.

He shook his head and pressed a soft kiss into her lips, eyes open. Rikku captured the kiss with her own lips but wished silently for a way to give it back, return it like an unwanted gift. "No. But I've got to be getting into the office." His emotional blockade panicked Rikku. Where could she run that she could forget him and keep herself from returning? "Unless you're going to go public about your reappearance, I would lay low around here. If you need anything...well…you're resourceful."

**_I'm amazed,  
When push comes to shove what I'd give to you-  
Everything._**

_"Don't pry, little one," Auron commanded. Rikku released her grip and the frozen reeds snapped to her original position, blocking her sight again. "Let them be." _

_Rikku could faintly hear Tidus' words. He loved Yuna. He wanted to be with her. Rikku could only stare, living vicariously with a visceral envy. _

_Macalania shivered all around her. Somehow cold always made loneliness more prominent. The ice covered forest felt plastic to the touch. There was no heat, no texture. She longed for sand. She wanted to feel each grain of sand slip through her fingertips. Bikanel had so many pieces to it: the sand, the cloudless sky, the palm trees, the ruins, the dry breeze, the dust. Macalania seemed two dimensional, just frozen forest._

_"Let us leave this place."Auron exited and Rikku followed with a heavy heart._

_"Auron?" she asked timidly during their walk back to camp from the spring._

_"What?"_

_Rikku stumbled with the words. The moment she found Tidus at Baaj temple, she thought only of Gippal. Though some physical similarities existed, Tidus would not end up a replacement for Gippal. Fleeting thoughts of him being a distraction from the biting loneliness in her heart were squelched as soon as she saw him kiss Yuna. Rikku wondered what took her so long to put it out of her mind. Had her feelings for Gippal been so strong that she would cling to a pathetic romantic notion for so long?_

_"How do you know if you're in love?" she asked._

_Auron looked down at the small Al Bhed girl and then back at the reeds. "You will know. Not now."_

_Rikku struggled to piece together his cryptic words. She watched him watch the reeds and realized his confusion. She wasn't talking about Tidus…or was she? She didn't even know herself. "It's just that…I feel like I'm all alone."_

_"This journey wasn't meant to be one of self discovery. If that's why you joined, you won't find a happy ending."_

_Rikku's eyes began to sting, poised to cry. "I'm here to save Yunie."_

_"Was that a question or a statement?"_

_Rikku didn't know. "She shouldn't have to be sacrificed," she continued._

_"No. She shouldn't." Auron tipped his glasses lower to stare closely into her eyes. "Whatever you're running from has brought you a long way from home."_

**_I'm amazed,  
The walls that I wouldn't mind crashing through,  
And I'd do it for days and for days._**

_Home sweet Home. Blood and carnage. Dozens of her Al Bhed brothers in the shape of sleeping corpses. It wasn't supposed to be this way._

_"Rikku! What's going on here?" Tidus called to her. She had run ahead to the main entrance of the underground city. _

_At her feet, the bleeding hand of Keyakku!_

_Keyakku, a hover pilot who worked for her father, reached for her. Without hesitation, she gripped it sturdily. Lacerations and burns covered his tan skin. His spiraling eyes were fading into his pain. "Keyakku! Who? Who's attacking us? _Fru tet drec du oui_ (Who did this to you?)" she pleaded. _

_"Yevon…Guado," was all he could say._

_Rikku looked around. Fiends hunted the Al Bhed like rabbits, casting spells and gnashing teeth. No fight would be enough to end it all. Images of Gippal, her father, her Brother, all fending off Guado and fiends flashed before her. Then, Keyakku's grip went slack and she knew what she had to do._

_"A war? Between Yevon and the Al Bed?"Lulu questioned._

_"_Dryd ec fnuhk. Guado ku vun dra summoner _(That is wrong! Guado go for the summoner)." Rikku turned to see her father checking the fallen Al Bhed's pulse._

_"_Vydran_ (Father)," Rikku whispered._

_"You Rikku's friends? Well, don't just stand there, come on! Let's go kick those Guado out of our home!"Cid let the others charge the entrance but was stopped by his daughter before he could join. "I'm sorry, Rikku. I don't know where he is. Last I heard, he was involved with Operation Mi'hen."_

_Rikku didn't even need to ask who 'he' was._

_"Come on, we have to find your Yuna."_

_As the bullets cried out and the fiends roared and the painful screams sung, Rikku's world went deaf and blind. _

_Operation Mi'hen._

_All those corpses washed up onto the banks of the High Road. Soldiers. Crusaders. Volunteers. Gippal._

_Images of his face, lifeless. _

_Tidus yanked at Rikku harshly, "Where are they keeping her?"_

_Suddenly, Yuna mattered. Yuna really mattered. "She's probably in the Summoner's Sanctum." Rikku couldn't even pretend to think that she would return to worrying about Gippal. She had to finish the mission. _

**_I'm amazed, I'm amazed,  
I'm amazed, I'm amazed._**

_Sin was gone, but so was Home. Cid, Brother, and Rikku could only gawk at the rubble and decay left behind. The small family crouched together in sand like orphans. Cid held his children close to him. Though Rikku had matured decades over night and Brother was twice his size, he held them tightly like infants. "I'll fix this," he promised. "I'll rebuild it with my bare hands if I have to. You watch. I'll make something outta this yet. And all of Spira will know what it means to be Al Bhed."_

_"_E femm ramb oui, vydran, _(I will help you, father,)"said Brother._

_"No. I have to do this. For you two. For your mother. For me." Cid handed each of his children a hot handful of the sand, the debris of their sanctuary laced with it. "It's quiet 'round Spira now. I want you two to have some fun. I didn't mean for you two to get wrapped up in that damned scheme to save the summoners. You shoulda never seen this mess. Go. Get outta here. When ya come back, I'll have this cleaned up." Cid closed their hands about the sand. "Don't ya never forget where ya come from. _

**_At all of the things I know you have done,  
This time I think that we've really won.  
The tables have turned,  
Now I'm taking my hat of to you.  
Said we'll see  
Darling it's all clear to me._**

_Gippal peered about the workroom floor. Hundreds of Al Bhed, but no Rikku. He glanced at the floor plan again. Cid had some great expectations for the new home. His idea of a place called __dra Luhluinca, an underground housing development with top notch security. Cid wanted the Al Bhed to be outright about building a new home in Bikanel. Before, Home was a sacred place that outsiders did not know of. But Cid wanted them to see what the Al Bhed could do. This time, however, nothing would be left to chance. The walls of dra Luhluinca would be heavily fortified and set up with outstanding protection._

_If a war were to occur on their land again, no one underground would die this time._

_"Hey meuh!" Gippal shouted to up to Cid who hung from a rappelling wire with a welding gun in hand. "I need you to look at these."_

_Cid slid down effortlessly. The rebuilding of Home provided newfound energy in the old man. "Haven't you gotten those security codes worked out yet?"_

_Gippal beckoned for his elder to come to his aid. Cid shrugged and obeyed."You see here, there's nothing. There's no password, no key. But if you look at this code, the doors won't open manually without them."_

_Cid dragged Gippal over to the computer plugged into the base of the main door. _

_Gippal had spent hours inputting frequencies so that any resident with a registered remote could open the enormous entryway to dra Luhluinca. Cid had been confident that no Al Bhed would be disloyal enough to share their remote with an outsider. However, the circumstance could arrive that Cid may need to lock the doors for emergency purposes. In the invent of such a scenario, the doors would need to be operated manually. But because the doors ran off frequencies, Gippal had troubles adjusting the system._

_Cid stared at the screen with him, "Dang machina. They work fine when yer talkin' 'bout frequencies and lasers and holographs but ya try openin' the door with yer hands and they start gettin' fussy." Cid attempted to access the main programming, but the computer buzzed nastily. "What's this?" _

_He squinted to investigate: **byccfunt naxienat**_ (password required)

"_What do ya mean I need a password? I'm the meuh!" Gippal hastily put in his password, eager to get things moving before Cid got any older and therefore lost even more knowledge about simple machina functioning. "Thanks…hmm…looks good…looks good…A HA! Here, there isn't a password because ya need to put one in."_

"_Well?"_

"_Well what?"_

"_What's the password?" asked Gippal._

"_Heck, I don't know. Make one up."_

_The password that would be the key to the city that housed the entire Al Bhed civilization._

_**R**_

_**I**_

_**K**_

_**K**_

_**U**_

**_I'm amaz_****_ed  
_**-Poe

* * *

There ya have it. R&R, pleeeease. I know there were a lot of flashbacks, but trust me, it'll be necessary to understand just what the heck I'm talking about later. Thanks for your reviews so far!


	6. Control Freak

Hello friends! If you've been tuning into the songs I put in each chapter, this is one of my favorite songs EVER! (I think I should give you guys homework. Go listen to the songs! It sets the mood for that chapter, REALLY!) Anyways, in response to my friend Miesie-Chan's comment: I know Rikku leaving Gippal in the dark is frustrating, but I promise down the line there will be a happy ending. (I run away with Paul Walker…okay, so maybe that doesn't happen, but it would be a darn good happy ending!)_** I will warn you though, this chapter is going to piss you off**_ Miesie-Chan. But like I said, HAPPY ENDING!

* * *

_**You lose control when you hold too tight****  
But turn your head long enough to let it bite  
Because faith left me staring at the ceiling through the night  
It's freaking me out**_

Trapped and alone in Gippal's empty apartment, Rikku started getting the _itch_. The natural instinct of a thief, the need to rummage and pillage, pulsed through her veins like electricity. There were so many drawers, so many doors, so many boxes, cases, cabinets, all begging to be inspected for something worthwhile to her.

_Alright, Rikku, where to begin?_

She decided to start with Gippal's bedside table, as it was the closest closed thing to her. The dresser had a rustic feel to it, much like the rest of his apartment. When Spira thrived off machina, Spira's greenery became abused. There was no reverence or concern for the environment and many now-sacred forests were destroyed to fulfill Spira's animalistic consumer needs. Once Yevon took over, the plant life of Spira began its rebirth. Places like Macalania and Kilika were once again allowed to thrive. To ensure the peace of the forests, Yevon banned the destruction of any forest along the pilgrimage road to Zanarkand.

However, many long lost machina cities still remained buried at the bottom of the sea. It was the Al Bhed's passion to dive down and capture some of Spira's long lost treasure, including furniture clearly made from trees native to Macalania forest. Gippal stripped the paint and sanded the drawers down to prevent further splintering. How the waterlogged drawer set lived was anyone's guess, but most of his furniture served to remind him that though time took its toll on everything, he could reverse it with enough effort.

The top drawer contained a few books, nothing interesting, mostly machina manuals that Rikku could care less about. If anything, she could slip them into her overnight bag and gift them to Brother someday. She slammed the drawer shut and opened the next one.

_Aha_, Rikku thought when she discovered the small cardboard box marked _Rikku_. She popped off the lid without a second thought. The box contained blurry photos, newspaper articles, and old audio spheres dated during the two years she traveled Spira alone. Rikku unfolded the first newspaper clipping and studied the article carefully. Some lines had been precisely traced over with a highlighter:

_Luca.  
Mysterious woman in black robs Sphere Theatre.  
Crimson Squad spheres stolen._

Rikku scoffed at the idea of breaking into the Sphere Theatre at Luca. The Gullwings were the ones who had returned those Spheres after using them to enter the Den of Woe. Why would she steal them only a year later?

_Calm Lands,  
Hover engines stolen.  
Reports of a woman dressed like a Cat Sith doll._

Rikku smiled and whispered to herself, "Alright, detective, caught me on that one." Since the Rift had only been a prototype, it had a knack for falling apart without its inventor to hold it together. Rikku found herself sneaking into sheds across the Calm Lands where Ardent and Open Air Inc. stored their hovers and other equipment for the game.

Rikku clicked play on one of the audio spheres while she picked through the other clippings.

"Sorry, love, I know it's early," LeBlanc's voice began, "but I thought you'd be delighted to know I had quite the visitor last night."

Gippal's tired voice replied, "That's thrilling, LeBlanc, but in the interest of saving time, why don't you just tell me why I should care." It wasn't that Gippal minded Leblanc and her gravity defying dress, she was always good for a sugar fix of eye candy, but early morning phone calls always upset Gippal. Sleeping in was his pastime.

"Nooj and I were out at the Tavern last night when the barkeep, a Hypello, mentioned that the Gullwings were in town. I assumed the Dullwings were up for a little bit of friendly competition, as always, but last I heard the girls split up when Rikku disappeared." Knocking could be heard in the distance. "Coming, Ormi. Be patient!" she shouted with her usual exuberance. "Listen, love, the Hypello said Rikku checked into the inn near the entrance to Guadosalem. Apparently, she checked in the room with a young man."

**_And when I fell asleep it plagued my dreams,  
And 30 bits of glass have become my teeth  
They've been breaking each and every time I tried to speak  
It's freaking me out_**

_Rikku sat at her captain's chair snacking on some fruit. The Rift nestled nicely into the canyon walls of the Thunder Planes near the shallow ponds and lakes that pooled into the craters created by thousands of years of lightning strikes. In the distance she could have sworn she saw someone standing in one of the small ponds, arms stretched towards the sky._

_Protected by the Rift, being so far away from the towers didn't bother Rikku. After her brush with angry Open Air Inc. leaders in the Calm Lands, she needed somewhere to hide where no one would think to find her. But for a person to willingly go for a swim quite a distance from the towers, well that was just plain ludicrous. _

_Rikku turned on the amplifier to get a good listen to the strange figure. _

"_C'mon, take me too!" a man's voice called._

_She could barely make out his dark arms against the dark background of the Thunder Planes. A bolt touched down on the banks of the pool, luckily missing the water. _

"_You missed! I said take me with you!" he cried again._

'_What're ya nuts?' Rikku thought to herself. Rikku brought up the headlights and turned on the microphone, "Hey, you gotta death wish?" The figure spun around to face the white lights of the Rift. He squinted into their blinding rays. "Maroda?"_

_Indeed, the younger brother and ex-guardian of Isaaru waded waste deep in a pool of what would surely be his own downfall. He glared to see through the light and make out a pilot, but it was no use. He turned back around._

_Rikku rushed to the door. She leapt out of the cabin with an intense haste. Rikku stopped short at the bank. If she got into the water and lightning touched down, her and Maroda would be fried to a crisp. "Are you crazy?" she shouted to him._

_Maroda didn't even blink._

_Rikku dipped a cautious toe into the water to begin with, then looked at the sky. Only an estimated one in 65,000 people in Spira were killed by lightning strike, she hoped her odds were even better. She crawled like a spider into the water and dog paddled out to him, her utility belt weighing her down. _

"_What are you doing?" she asked._

"_Isaaru…Pace…they're gone," he sobbed with his back to her. _

"_Listen, I'm really sorry for your loss, but if I don't get you outta this water, my conscience is gonna eat me alive for letting you get deep fried." Rikku pulled at his arm but he pulled away. _

_When she attempted again, he beamed angrily at her for trying to thwart his suicide. "You don't understand. I spent years pilgrimaging to Zanarkand with them. Being a guardian is all I really know. It even came second to being a brother." Rikku could only contemplate her current sistering skills. "After Isaaru closed down the tourist attraction at Zanarkand, he decided to return to Bevelle as a monk. Pace followed. They wanted me to come too." He again cried out to the sky while punching his fist into the pond, water splashing into his face and disguising the tears that followed, "But I was too stubborn to trust Yevon again…to trust my own brothers."_

_Rikku placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "What happened."_

"_I don't know. New Yevon wouldn't even let me attend the funeral."_

"_I thought the fighting ended after Yuna's song?" Rikku questioned._

_Maroda finally turned to Rikku. His eyes were swollen and his lips were blue from the frigid water. "Peace is a fragile thing. I understand that now."_

"_So, you're out here to?"_

"_What's the point of living if your loved ones are gone?"_

_Rikku was alone._

_She wanted to be free, but all she ended up being was alone._

_Like Maroda._

"_I can't say anything that'll change your mind. I can't tell you that not killing yourself will be better in the end. I can't tell you that loneliness won't always be there. But I can tell you that Isaaru and Pace wouldn't want you to do this." They stared into each other's eyes from across the water. Maroda recognized the stern gaze and could sense the slow beating of her heart. He knew she had been abandoned as well. Whether it was her words, his knowledge that Isaaru and Pace wanted him to live, or the fact he found a kindred spirit in his suffering, he accepted her hand. "C'mon, let's get you outta here."_

_Rikku pulled him out of the water and back toward the Rift. Just as their feet met the entrance, a white whip slashed the surface of the pond, sending fireworks through the placid water and causing the spines of the fish to light up like festival lanterns. "Sorry," he whispered to her._

"_I'm just glad my powers of persuasion have gotten better. A year ago, we'd be toast."_

**_You're freaking me out, you're freaking me out  
And I can run like a coward for the door  
But I'll never get out  
You're freaking me out_**

And so Rikku was reminded of a time she let slip her mind the moment Gippal returned to her. Two years were still missing between her and Gippal. She feared the moment when their histories would surface.

Her friendship with Maroda escalated into a very misplaced fling. They shared loss. They were also ex-guardians who watched their loved ones get wrapped up in Yevon's lie. They had so much in common, but Rikku's heart still belonged to Gippal, no matter how she tried to replace him. Maroda followed like a lost puppy for months, questioning her survival, how she remained sane with the constant nagging of loneliness. She wanted a friend, he wanted something more.

The only thing that kept her mind from splitting in two was the notion that Gippal must have had other lovers. There wasn't a girl in Bikanel who wouldn't trade her first born for a date with the meuh. Not to mention he had a plethora of work to keep his mind off her.

Even as she sat with the audio sphere in hand, Gippal had his mind off Rikku due to work.

She slipped her hand back into the drawer before her head could go further into a shame spiral. This time it resurfaced with a glowing red orb.

**_You lose your mind if you lose control  
It makes you feel ashamed for the hearts you stole  
And now your own heart's scared of an attack  
Because you can't give them back_**

_"I wanted you to see this," Gippal's voice began as the camera panned around a grandiose colony of houses. "It's not done yet. We're still working on the ceiling."_

_The camera came to a standstill viewing miles and miles of exposed wires that were being paneled by Al Bhed workers on pulleys. The camera came back down and spun to face the recorder. Gippal crouched down on the ground with the sphere recording out in front of him. Beads of sweat poured down from his brow and bare chest. He had obviously been working for hours. He held the sphere with one hand and removed his eye patch with the other. He used a bandana that had been crammed into his pocket as a towel to wipe his perspiring forehead._

_"I know it's not much, but funding was a little low ever since Rin bailed on us. Don't hate him. I'm still trying to convince your father to do the same." Gippal laughed and used his Cid impression voice, "'That traitor had the nerve to suggest that the Al Bhed don't wanna home anymore.' Nhadala seemed to feel the same way. But this is your dad's dream."He sighed and fumbled with words. "I know…it's your dream too, isn't it. I keep asking myself 'why are you doing this, Gippal. What if the Al Bhed don't come here? What if they don't make it their home again?' So I remind myself that if I can just get you to come home, I'll have achieved all that I was hoping for."_

_Gippal's blind eye scanned the catacombs but saw nothing. The iris had turned grey long ago. It resembled a burnt out star in a galaxy of light. Everything about him was so lively and beautiful, but that eye was dead, lifeless, useless. Very rarely did he allow others to see his bad eye. It served only to embarrass him and his people. All Al Bhed boys went through a phase where they started experimenting with machina. Cid had been programming assault machina to battle Sin. Gippal, his protégé, was commanded to stand next to guard them while Cid looked for the missing circuit board. Gippal had also been commanded to not touch them. Curiosity got the better of him and as soon as he approached the twitching machine, it panicked and exploded. Inside the machina's core, a flash grenade waited. Should anything threaten the machina, the bomb would go off. For weeks, both of Gippal's eyes were dormant. _

_Gippal remembered the first thing he saw when his left eye returned to him. _

**_You're stressing me out when you prove me wrong  
You're wearing me out cause I've slept so long_**

_The Al Bhed Psyches defended their title as world champions and were celebrating at Home. Only the elite or the rich had been invited, but Cid allowed Gippal to accompany him as a guest and a date for his young daughter. Gippal had not seen a girl for weeks and had almost forgotten what they looked like._

_Brother and Gippal were at the base of the stairs fiddling with their dress shirts and cufflinks. A soft voice called to him, the voice of an angel, "Gippal? What happened to your eyes, dear?" Rikku's mother knelt down and petted his hair and face. Rikku and Brother's mother, Marina, truly was the jewel of the Al Bhed people. She was soft spoken for the most part, but played a valuable part as the meuhacc_ _(lioness) of the people. She stood by Cid proudly as he stood by their people. Though some Al Bhed criticized her family because her sister had married a Yevonite and bore a child, Marina let their words pass over her like water and still continued to spread the Al Bhed's greatness across Spira. "Come, Gippal, I want you to meet someone important." Marina pulled him by the wrist up a few steps and called, "Rikku, lusa (come!)"_

_Gippal heard quiet footsteps pass each step until they came to a stop in front of him. Marina's soft scent of oasis water and cactus flower trailed off, replaced by the abrupt but comforting smell of engine grease. A gentle hand was slipped into his palm. He brought his face down to it, but when it came back up; he saw a face that appeared as the smaller version of the angel behind her. "I'm Rikku," she exclaimed with vivacity. At first, Gippal's mind could not register the feeling of sight. He blinked furiously at her, trying to gather the sensation of sight. "Mom, he won't let go of my hand."_

_Gippal snatched his hand away and quickly returned to his part as an eight year old boy. _

**_You're freaking me out, you're freaking me out  
And I can run like a coward for the door  
But I'll never get out  
You're freaking me out_**

Rikku watched as Gippal's monologue came to a close.

"I don't know where I could leave this and have you find it," Gippal said to the sphere. "But then again, I don't know where I could hide this and have you not find it. I just wanted you to know that I…I built this for you."

**_Threw it all away, I threw it all away  
And the best part is not knowing just what I threw away,  
I threw it all away_**

"So this is where we're gonna build the thing, huh?" Gippal said while rubbing his chin, deep in thought. He imagined the floor plan, the dimensions, the lengths, widths and heights of every wall and room. He could already see the men it would take and the nights he would have to spend.

President Tarryn waited behind him with her assistant, an ex-newscaster, Shelinda, jotting down notes, and Shinra scrawling notes down at twice her speed in competition behind her. "It's just water now, I don't know-"

Gippal put a hand up to interrupt her, "Well I do. I know exactly how we're gonna go about this." Shinra handed his boss a pair of goggles used especially for underwater use. Gippal slipped them over his head and began pulling off his black gloves. He handed them to Tarryn and said, "I can already tell you, we're gonna need a big-ass drill."

"A drill?" she mimicked with shock. Before she could protest further, Gippal dove into the water. Gippal's form disappeared into Luca's vast waters. Tarryn turned to Shinra who was busily scribbling in Al Bhed. "Does he know what he's doing?" she asked.

Shinra smiled up at her, "Of course he doesn't. Trust me, in the next few months, he's going to endanger every worker, every life form underwater, and every citizen in Luca with constant explosions, temper tantrums because something isn't working the way he imagined it, and crashed airships that he calculated bad landings for. However, when he's done, it's going to be the most amazing structure you've ever seen. There's a reason he only won three fourths of the votes for meuh among the Al Bhed's leaders."

Tarryn folded her broad arms across her chest, "Hmph. I assume it has something to do with the same reason he lost that eye."

"I wouldn't doubt him. Just hand over the money and stay out of his way."

"I simply cannot believe Baralai is going to give him access to take apart the Bevelle temple," she stated. "Especially if Baralai's out on vacation during the whole thing. What a time to decide to take a respite."

"I don't question the things _you_ people do." _You people_ being Spira's leaders. "I'm just wondering, where are you gonna get the money to buy his _big-ass drill_?"

She grinned a malicious smile at the young Al Bhed assistant, "That's none of your concern. Like you said, I just need to hand over the gil and let him go about his business."

Gippal's blonde head bobbed out of the water. He pulled off his goggles and asked, "None of those fish down there are endangered species, are they?"

"Not yet," Tarryn offered.

**_You're freaking me out, you're freaking me out__  
And I can run like a coward for the door  
But I'll never get out  
You're freaking me out_**

The lift dropped off the trio at the bottom level of Via Infinito. Baralai accepted the two women into Bevelle, but they all had to sneak into the dungeon. Via Infinito was kept off limits, even to the praetor. Lulu and Paine soon discovered why.

Lulu spun in a mixture of pyrflies, keeping her spell casting doll tucked securely under her arm. In the distance, the chambers echoed with the footsteps of large fiends. Near the lift's landing, they were as safe as they could get in a dungeon. "What is this place?" Lulu asked with shock in her voice.

"The Farplane is a place of never ending happiness, serene landscapes, peace," Baralai began, "during the wavering of Spira's faith in Yevon, a group of renegade followers decided that it wasn't fair for both non-believers, such as the Al Bhed, and strong believers, such as the summoners, to both be sent to the same place upon death. Trema thought of a place where those who sought to defy Yevon could be sent."

Paine glared at Baralai, "How could you hide this?"

"I had no choice."

"You could have ended it, sealed it up, sent the dead locked down here to where they belong," Paine shouted.

Baralai stepped back from the rising tension, "My position called for me to protect our followers and represent the teachings of _New _Yevon. I cannot be held responsible for what a couple of savage believers created."

Paine stormed away with her hand on her sword, shouting back at Baralai and Lulu, "Keep an eye out for Sir Auron."

Lulu tread with great caution. Wakka and Vidina thought she was out visiting Yuna. If Wakka knew what she was doing, he'd chain her up, or worse, join her and risk his life too. Part of her came because she needed adventure, another part came to help an old friend. "This could cause a political mess, Baralai," Lulu said in her usual calm tone. "Worse than when people abandoned Yevon and much worse when New Yevon and the Youth League were squabbling. How do you expect to contain this if it gets out?"

Baralai kept his lance at the ready but could only shrug at the question, "This rabbit hole goes much deeper than I'm allowed to let on."

Pain shot a glare over her shoulder at him. After what the two had been through in the Crimson Squad, she wanted to trust him, she wanted to befriend him. But he was keeping something from the both of them and possibly others. Before the journey ended, she had to find out. "I hope you don't intend on sweeping Lulu and I under the rug when this is over."

The thundering footsteps ricocheted from wall to wall, coming closer with every second. "Paine, if I wanted to kill you, it would have already happened. The monks protecting this place kill whoever see it. I refused to offer up your name after the Gullwings snuck in and the monks went on a man-hunt. They must have found someone else considering they've stopped hunting and you're all still alive."

"You two will have to stop fighting for now. Those footsteps are coming closer," Lulu commented.

"We're not leaving until we find Auron and send him to the Farplane," Paine commanded.

Baralai grappled both of the girls by their arms and pulled them back behind a corridor. "Don't move. Don't breathe."

The king drake shook the walls, an earthquake with every step. His claws stabbed craters into the floor and his python-like tale slithered behind him, smacking the walls and further causing Via Infinito to tremble. His horns, each the size of airships, scraped along the ceiling with an ear shattering blare. His nostrils puffed clouds of fire and ash, warning anything that even thought of challenging him, he would win.

Lulu found herself dazzled by the drake's reflection displayed on the pyrflies that danced past her. Her magic had laid to waste dozens of smaller drakes and couldn't comprehend why a strong enough ultima spell couldn't do some serious damage.

Baralai could almost read her mind, seeing her hand itch at the seams of her doll. He shook his head sternly, and the trio waited until the drake passed to stalk other the halls of Via Infinito.

They simultaneously released their breaths. "Does Gippal know about his?" Paine asked, ignoring their near death experience.

"I don't want to get him involved until the time is right. If I live through this, Gippal and I will be heading to Bevelle's Chamber of the Fayth and we'll discuss…bigger things."

Paine had, had it with his cryptic responses. She slipped her blade out and taunted it in front of Baralai's neck in one swift motion. "Talk."

"This is bigger than you could ever understand." Baralai turned his face away, the blade pressing gently across the side of his neck.

Lulu pushed Paine back, "Now is not the time to argue!"

"I'm tired of secrets! What are you planning?" Paine demanded.

Silence.

Paine, Baralai, and Lulu stood at opposites, fixing deadly stares at one another. No one moved. No one breathed. No one blinked.

Gippal sighed with deep shame. His head fell to his chest and his lance hung limp at his side. "I think President Tarryn is trying to kill the Al Bhed race."

**_You're freaking me out, you're freaking me out  
But I keep running right back around for more__  
Because I'm in love with my doubt  
It's freaking me out  
_**_-Copeland

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_

Well, that chapter's done. Sorry it's so much shorter, but that last one took a lot outta me. :P Anyways, a lot of stuff is about to go down. And don't worry, this is a RikkuxGippal fic, so you all know how it will end. Also, last chapter I put that Vidina was a girl, SORRY! I noticed it when I re-read it yesterday. I'm gonna fix it as soon as I can. Keep reviewing!

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	7. The Best Deceptions

Ha! I am the queen of cliff hangers! All bow down! Bragging rights aside, I'm trying to get this story busted out ASAP. So please keep on your toes and be sure to check back in to see if I've updated. There is a reference to Trema in this chapter again. If you wanna read up on him check out a website.

**_Heard about your trip,  
I heard about your souvenirs.  
I heard about the cool breeze  
In the cool nights,  
And the cool guys  
That you spent them with._**

"What?" Pain and Lulu gasped at the same time.

Baralai slumped further away from the girls, not wanting to catch their glares. "Don't be upset. This is a political matter that doesn't concern-"

The stiletto spikes of Paine's boots slammed into the ground with every angry step toward Baralai. She slapped her palm onto his shoulder and wrenched him around to face her. When he couldn't bring their gazes to meet and she screamed, "Politics? Gippal is your friend!"

"And I will protect him unconditionally. But I cannot just jump into this. I have to be sure. If Gippal knew, this would be a war against Yevon all over again."

Paine folded her arms across her chest, "So, you're trying to save your own career?"

"I don't expect you to understand."

Baralai fell to the ground with his head in his hands. They were guardians, protectors, _followers_. They didn't understand what it meant to be the one to pull the trigger or make the world-altering changes. They could judge his morals and criticize his actions, but at the end of the day, he was the one who had to live with his decisions. As a leader, Baralai had to foresee all possible outcomes to his actions. His steps had to be calculated perfectly and at the moment his information was still too insignificant to trouble with.

Lulu knelt down across from him, her face cold and stern like Paine's but her words far more welcoming. "How can you be sure?" she questioned in a soft voice.

Baralai lifted a shaky hand from his side bag, carrying with it a glowing red sphere.

Paine snatched it bitterly before Baralai could protest. Her crimson eyes fixed onto a blurry image of Isaaru, his voice barely audible and sweat cascading down his face. He wore the black, high collared robes of a Yevon monk. His cropped ponytail had been stripped away, leaving him with a smooth bald head, also common to the monk's appearance. However, small scrapes and cuts freckled his usually pristine complexion.

Around his image, pyrflies swarmed.

As Paine watched, Baralai fought off a painful tear. "He wanted to rejoin Yevon. As a summoner, a part of him still remained with the temples. I hired him on as an assistant. The first business I had for him was to head down into the Chamber of the Fayth and make sure the lifts were working. I still don't know what he found down there, but it led him to search Via Infinito for more clues." Baralai struggled to inhale. "I found some monks heading to the main Chamber of Worship, the antechamber to the Chamber of the Fayth. There are large flames there that have been lit since the temple's birth. The summoners used them to light torches before descending to acquire Bahamut. I caught them dumping two large bags into the flames. When these monks left, I ordered the flames be extinguished." Baralia's words left his lips in shards between gasping breaths. "The monks refused to move. I had to do it myself. I found Isaaru's body and the body of a small boy in the bags…slaughtered…burned. And the sphere."

Paine handed the sphere to Lulu. "How long have you known?" Paine asked.

"I've had the sphere for almost a year, but I didn't want to retaliate before I was sure. The pieces are coming together now, but I don't know if I can do this. The monks rule Bevelle now. I'm not strong enough to do this myself."

**_Well, I guess I should have  
Heard of them from you.  
I guess I should have  
Heard of them from you._**

_"Praetor Baralai…the monks must be…stopped," Isaaru told the sphere in a gasping hoarse voice. "This place…the monks have found a way to direct souls."_

_A gunshot sounded and Isaaru ducked to the floor._

_Isaaru hurried to continue before the shots got closer. "Lady Yunalesca could redirect souls into aeons. These beasts here…they're aeons. They're trying to create…a grand aeon of sorts. They use the non-believers as experimental sacrifices."_

_Isaaru shoved the sphere into the folds of his robe. He prayed whoever viewed it would still listen. A towering woman approached him, carrying Pacce, his youngest brother, by the wrist. "I hope you weren't looking for this," she said. Pacce squirmed and kicked, but the beast of a woman did not budge. "Someone had been tampering with the lifts down here. The monks will be happy to know that I've found the culprits."_

_Isaaru gripped his staff like a soldier. The aeons wouldn't be coming to his aid, but he could still conjure up a painful holy spell. "The praetor will not stand for this!" Isaaru shouted._

_"The praetor? If he's lucky, I'll have him sent into something nice…an adorable little helm. You, however, I have something much more ironic in mind for you, my lost little summoner."_

_A monk carrying a rifle in one hand and his staff in the other appeared at the woman's side. "We've found Trema. I'm afraid he's too strong to redirect into a fiend."_

_The woman groaned and pushed Pacce to the monk. "Kill the kid. I'll take care of Trema. As for this monk, find Bahamut down here and redirect the monk into him." The monk nodded and called for other monks carrying the same rifles to join him. They each grabbed Isaaru's hands and began to carry the brothers away. "Wait," the giant woman shouted. "Did you find the worm?"_

_"Yes ma'am," her subordinates responded._

_"How big is it?"_

_The first monk scoffed, "We can't even fit it down here. There's a large cavern beneath the Chamber of Fayth that was used to store Vegnagun. It's down there."_

_The woman laughed loudly and smiled at Isaaru. "We spent weeks in Bikanel looking for the biggest fiend we could. Turned out to be a giant worm. I just hope it will be enough to house Gippal's ego."_

_"What use could you have for summoning?" Isaaru called to her. _

_"There's a lot of Al Bhed on Bikanel. I'm afraid there just aren't enough bullets for all of them."_

Don't you see?  
Don't you see ,  
That the charade is over?  
And all the "Best Deceptions,"  
And "Clever Cover Story" awards  
Go to you.

Gippal opened the door to his bedroom to find Rikku snoozing happily, sprawled out across his bed. He wondered if she had moved an inch since his early morning escape. A CommSphere rested on top of her bare abdomen. Gippal checked its monitor and read the stats to see if she had any more calls while she was out. There had been nothing since that morning.

He attempted to put the CommSphere back on his dresser, but Rikku's eyes fluttered open at the sudden loss of weight on her stomach. "You're a light sleeper," Gippal commented. _Once a thief, always a thief_, she thought to herself. "I'm surprised you're still here," he said, knowing full well it was because her ship was gone.

"I miss the smell of sand," she lied. "Where did you go today?"

"Business meeting," he answered. Gippal sat at the foot of his bed and started removing his boots. He knew she wouldn't be confessing anything soon, but that left him with an excuse to keep his lips sealed about where he disappeared to. "What did you do today?"

Rikku sat up and pointed to various spots around the house, "I did nothing over there, then I moved over to loitering in the kitchen, then being bored in the living room, and I finished up by boring myself to sleep in here."

Gippal laughed politely, "Why didn't you go out?"

"And see who? You're the only person that knows where I am." They both recognized her lie but refused to acknowledge it.

"I didn't mean to run out on you this morning," he apologized.

Rikku crawled over to him on all four, arching her back and pointing her rear toward the ceiling. In a lynx-like manner, she sat back on her heels on Gippal's lap and nestled into his chest. Contrary to her seductive motions and sultry tone, Gippal read deeply into her flat words, "My world doesn't revolve _completely_ around you. I managed." Gippal played along and smirked down at her, each playing their role in continuing the charade. "Are you hungry?"

"Hungry, tired, sore. Take your pick."

Rikku slipped around the side of him. "Alright, you know the routine. Take off your shirt," she commanded from behind him.

Gippal turned to look at her but she was already kneading her hands in preparation. With the emotional distance he put between them, he wasn't too excited about any empty physical contact. "I'll be fine, really. I just need to relax." He thought of the bottle of _dra pmuut_ hiding in one of his cabinets.

Rikku yanked at his shirt, "Get over yourself. The thief in me had to fight off pawning all your furniture all day. My hands have been a little too idle for my taste."

When she finally did away with his shirt, she pushed Gippal down onto his stomach and crawled onto his back. There was no shyness to her this time. As usual, her short skirt rode up her hips and thighs as she planted her legs on either side of him. Her hands worked at him like dough, running every inch of his back under the muscles of her tiny fingers. If she was determined to act like nothing was going on, what was the harm in using it to his advantage?

_We'll just play our parts_, he told himself as she squeezed at the knots in his back.

**_So kiss me hard  
Because this will be the last time that I let you.  
You will be back someday,  
And this awkward kiss  
That tells of other people's lips  
Will be of service  
To keeping you away._**

"_Thanks for bringing me back, Rikku," Maroda whispered to her._

_They stood alone in the halls outside the barracks of the Youth League. The new head quarters in Kilika Bay were finally operational and Maroda had been appointed second in command to Commander Lucil. He requested that Rikku return him to the barracks after his brush with fate in the Thunder Plains. The pair spent the night in Guadosalam directly following that night. In the morning, Maroda spent most of the morning asking Rikku about what happened to the Gullwings and Rikku asking why Maroda and his brothers ended up going their separate ways. After hours of conversing, Maroda decided that he should return to base before anyone starting worrying. _

_Rikku smiled warmly, "No problem."_

_The barracks were dark and the sound of the bay crashing against the basement halls sent chills down Rikku's back. The thought of a basement level being underwater didn't sit well with her. Being under sand wasn't as scary. She assumed if Home collapsed, she could claw her way out of the sand, but drowning terrified her. _

"_Where will you go tonight?" Maroda asked._

_Rikku shrugged as usual. She leaned back against the cold wall then brought her arms to her chest to try and trap her own body heat. "The ship's been on the fussy side. I might head out to the Calm Lands for a repair." She decided to leave out the part where she would have to rob people. "Where's your room," she asked, trying to make small talk to ease the awkward silence between them._

_Maroda nodded toward a door at the end of the hall then started heading that way. Rikku didn't move at first, so Maroda returned to her. He placed a palm on either side of her and then leaned down to her face. She didn't see him hover or even pause in permission. Their lips collided in a hungry kiss and then parted. The quick but passionate kiss left her mind dizzy and screaming: Gippal, Gippal, Gippal. _

_Maroda didn't study her face after or say or word. It went against every kiss she had ever known. She wondered if he even knew what he was doing. When she finally brought her fingertips to her lips to check if they had indeed been kissed, Maroda laughed to himself, "I'm sorry."_

_Gippal, Gippal, Gippal._

_But what girl could say no to a free kiss if it was from someone who really meant it._

_She didn't protest. She didn't reply. Rikku just stood there like a statue waiting for someone to take the reins and decide where she would go next. Maroda still had her trapped between the wall and his chest. Her physical position and lack of protest reassured him that he was still in the right to kiss her again. He didn't wait to do so. _

_When he again released her, he went back to his dorm door and opened it, stepping aside to allow her entrance. "I'm not asking you to do something you don't want to. I just…don't want to be alone."_

_The line was cliché at best, but how many times had she told herself the same thing. She used the company of fiends and thunder and rain and sleeping friends for so long she almost forgot what human interaction felt like._

**_I heard about your regrets.  
I heard that you were feeling sorry.  
I heard from someone  
That you wish you could  
Set things right between us._**

"You're not falling asleep on me, are you?" Rikku asked.

"Hmm?" Gippal asked. Her voice had gently awoken him from his happy quasi-slumber.

Rikku smiled down at him and repeated, "If you're tired, I could leave you alone."

Gippal finally decided to turn over. Rikku allowed her hands to fall on his chest and watched as his eye darted about the ceiling, anywhere but hers. "I really want this to work. I wouldn't have let you back into my life if I really didn't want this to work." Rikku pulled back her hands as if they had been burned. "We're not doing this with honesty. You crying and screaming at me back on the ship, _that_ was honest. This is…"

"_Honesty?_ Alright, let's start with you, where did you go today?"

Gippal pushed her back gently, if only to move her further away from him. "That's not what I meant." Rikku took his hint, stood up, and walked toward the door. Gippal chased her toward the door, "I'm sorry, but what do you even care what I do as meuh? You abandoned us, remember?" Rikku stepped further away from him again. This time, he didn't budge.

She was halfway between his bedroom and the front door now. Hands on her hips, beaming angrily, she asked, "Are you mad because I abandoned Bikanel or because I abandoned _you_ because _honestly_ your priorities seem to be a little askew."

Gippal leaned against the door jamb nonchalantly, "Okay, reality check for a minute, what exactly are you talking about?"

The bickering teenagers they once were slowly surfaced, avoiding the subject and making up excuses. Rikku folded her hands across her chest like a 15-year-old and Gippal scoffed at her words like a 17-year-old. "I found the spheres in your bedside table. You can keep Bikanel, I don't want it."

"That's just like you, ya know. This is the same crap you gave your father when you left. You're mad because I love you enough to put you before my people, but when I don't you start acting like a jealous girlfriend, asking where I've been and what I've done." Gippal stormed to the set of drawers angrily. He yanked open the drawer and pulled out the sphere. "This sphere, by the way, wasn't made for you. I made this for the girl I sat with _unbryh_ and who I kissed before I left for the Crimson Squad. It wasn't made for the girl who can't make up her mind about what she wants. It wasn't made for the girl who's getting early morning phone calls from Paine about missions concerning world leaders."

"I should have known you'd spy on me, you've only done it for the last two years."

"This is _my_ house." They glared at each other a while longer before Gippal broke the silence, "No one's forcing you to stay."

"You gonna follow me if I leave again?"

"I'd be more worried that I'd have you arrested for meddling."

Rikku shook her head in pity. She thought momentarily about packing her things and leaving, but she soon realized none of it was hers, not the spheres, not the drawers, not the furniture, not Bikanel, not Gippal.

Quietly, Rikku returned to the empty desert waiting outside for her.

**_Well, I guess I should have  
Heard of them from you.  
I guess I should have  
Heard of them from you._**

"_I thought you'd be asleep by now," Paine said before taking a seat next to Gippal in front of the dying fire._

_Gippal gripped his rifle tightly in one hand and held his other in front of the fire, attempting to absorb every bit of warmth. He gestured to the pyrflies that filled the cave, "Could you sleep in a place like this?"_

"_I just have to think of a happier place."_

"_Like inside a drake's mouth? That is, in fact, happier than this place." Paine laughed at his comment. She enjoyed his company immensely. Their time together in the Crimson Squad had been perilous thus far, but Gippal somehow kept that beyond him. "So, Miss Paine, what's on the agenda after this?"_

_Paine traced lines in the dirt with her finger. On the other side of the blaze, Baralai and Nooj slept comfortably with their rifles close by. Gippal had volunteered to be on the lookout, which suited the sleepless soldier just fine. He longed for lazy afternoons in the desert when he pass the entire morning away, sleeping in the shade. The second his feet left Al Bhed territory, he became an insomniac. "Assuming we make it out of here?"_

"_We __**have**__ to make it out of here. I have someone back home who would kill me if I died here."_

"_I haven't thought about that. I suppose that I assumed I'd stay with the Crimson Squad; get promoted to something more than just a recorder."_

_Gippal tried to trace lines in the dirt with his fingers too. No matter how he tried, they always turned into cactuars. "I don't see why they'd wanna record any of this." Gippal let his eye wander about the cave. "It's not exactly scenic." The cave walls sat like shadows behind them, never touching them, but dark and looming. The fine dirt gathered everywhere, much like sand, but without the warmth. The thin dirt left layers of grimy silk on all of Gippal's clothes, his hands, and under his nails. _

"_What about you? What will you do after this?" Gippal smiled at the thought of his homecoming. He knew it would be grandiose. It was no secret that the Al Bhed people had placed their hopes in the hands of the meuh and the youths. The Al Bhed only had so many icons and most of them had either left the desert or died. Marina, meuhacc (lioness) of the Al Bhed people died the first and only time Sin attacked Bikanel. Rin left to become a worldly merchant. And Nhadala went to research other areas of Spira. The Al Bhed future seemed to sit on the shoulders of Cid's kin and the aspiring young man who was taking charge as the greatest machine technician of the past century. Only lately had Gippal entertained the idea of becoming much more than the leader of a machine faction. The position of meuh would be up for grabs once Cid got too senile, which didn't seem too far away._

"_When I get home, I'll be a war hero, which translates to fame, glory, positions of power, and of course, women."_

_Paine vaguely recalled him mentioning a girl that he was close to. She nudged him slyly and proceeded to use her superior feminine cunning to mine for information, "I thought you had a girlfriend? What's her name again?"_

"_Rikku?"_

"_Ah ha, so you do have a giflriend!"_

_Gippal groaned in faux frustration. It felt strange and yet perfectly acceptable to refer to Rikku as his girlfriend. "You tricked me. Listen, she's not actually my girlfriend. And she'd probably kick my ass for calling her one. So between you and me, let's just call her a perspective match."_

"_She must be special," Paine commented in her usual flat tone._

"_She is everything a man like me could ever want. She's outgoing, she's __**gorgeous**__, she's got my back."_

"_That's what's important to you?"_

"_She's the only girl I could ever promise the world to and follow through."_

**_I'm waiting for blood  
To flow to my fingers,  
I'll be all right  
When my hands get warm_**

The sun stabbed in hot rays at every grain of sand in the Bikanel desert. Littering the desert like spots on a coeurl, the cactuar sweat along with the shrubs, the sand, the machina ruins, the fiends, and the lone woman treading the sand in a pair of heavy boots. The boots left a trail of zigzagging footprints wherever they traversed. Mirroring them, a set of four paws stamped the sand as well.

Rikku turned to face the enormous lupe that had followed her since she passed _dra dufar _(the tower), the largest dune in Bikanel. Her eyes and mind betrayed her, lost to the heat of the desert. Had she remained in the desert, like a good Al Bhed girl, the heat would hold no grudge against her. But it seemed that the fiery hands of the desert sought to capture Rikku in its deadly clutch. Rikku could only assume that the lupe was waiting for her to keel over dead so he could feast. She hadn't the energy nor the strength to run or fight the giant fiend.

"I gotta warn ya, friend," she called back to the monster, "I'm not as tasty as I look."

Rikku swayed like a drunk from the fatigue the temperature caused. Her steps began to stumble one after the other until she finally tossed herself to the sand. The lupe nudged its cold nose against the small of Rikku's back, causing her face to fall flat into the sand.

"Hey! I ain't dead yet. Hold your chocobos!"

The lupe nudged and then whimpered.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be out of your way in a good hour or two." Rikku rolled onto her back and looked up at the beast panting down at her. His eyes, though four times the size of hers, shared the spiral iris. Rikku grinned, "Guess that makes us family." Realizing her own words, she slapped her arm over her eyes to guard herself from the blinding sun and from the beast's gaze. "Well then I wouldn't stick around. We're just gonna end up hating each other in about five minutes."

The lupe whimpered again before laying down next to her.

The soft hum of a hover approached Rikku's sweltering ears. She turned to her furry companion and asked, "You hear that, friend?"

The lupe perked up an ear then shot its gaze to the incoming vessel. Soon, the beast began to panic, nudging harder at Rikku, nipping lightly with his teeth but whimpering much louder. "What is your glitch?" Rikku sat up to see the hover. "Maybe it'll come rescue me, and you can go find some other hallucinating wanderer." Rikku stood up and began waving her arms, "Hey! Hey! Over here!"

The lupe posted itself in front of Rikku, gnashing his teeth at the hover. The hover came to a stop in front of the angry lupe. In a quick, shocking movement, the hover's operator dismounted and shot a grappling arrow into the neck of the lupe.

"Hey, that was a little uncalled for," Rikku said with her hands on her hips.

The lupe staggered about, kicking up sand, then came to a landing with one paw resting across the hover. The operator wrenched the bloody arrow from the fiend's neck.

Rikku readied her daggers, "Hey, you gotta problem?"

The operator removed a black ski mask and goggles. His head was shaved completely bald. Rikku recognized his signature haircut and the staff he carried on his back as the uniform of a Yevon monk. The monk used a CommSphere to speak to someone with a woman's voice, "I took care of Cid. He's got an Al Bhed girl with him."

"Take care of it," the female's voice commanded.

With that, the monk placed his communicator back into his pocket and aimed another arrow toward Rikku's chest.

Rikku leapt to pounce on him with her daggers, but just as her feet left the ground, the arrow with the grappling prongs at the end embedded deep into her chest cavity. A numbing electric shock pulsed through her veins until her mind completely turned off.

And faded to black.

**_Ignoring the phone,  
__I'd rather say nothing.  
I'd rather you'd never  
Heard my voice._**

"It's an elemental fiend, I'll handle it," Lulu shouted as a bolt of thunder passed over the trio's head.

"Lulu, you can't!" Paine called to her, but it was too late.

Lulu folded and swayed her arms in front of her, poised to cast a powerful waterga spell, just as the elemental charged to cast another attack.

Lulu concentrated on the teachings she had abandoned the second the Eternal Calm came into effect. _Concentrate your powers. Feel every drop of water growing into a mist, growing into a wave, growing into a tsunami. Oceans, rivers, rain, puddles, geysers, cascades, streams, ponds, waterfalls, all gathering into a tsunami. _Before Lulu could unleash the spell, Paine slammed her into the ground and hurled her blade like a javelin straight into the main body of the elemental. The blade glimmered with a purple glow which Lulu recognized as a demi spell.

The elemental convulsed in pain. "It's weak. Send it now!"

Baralai nodded and placed his hands in prayer position. As Baralai's radiating presence grew near to the elemental, it began to give off pyrflies.

Paine returned to Lulu's side. "Are you okay? It wasn't my intention to hurt you."

Lulu slowly came to her feet. "Don't worry. I've been through worse. What's happening to it?"

"Can't you feel it?" Paine asked. "That elemental…it's Auron."

The pyrflies danced like ribbons, wrapping themselves around Baralai and then shooting off from the dying elemental. When the display came to a standstill, all that remained was the young body of Auron, limp on the cold floor of Via Infinito.

Baralai looked down with pain in his eyes. There were so many fiends. He feared the task at hand, sending all of them to the Farplane before their time, or in Auron's case, long after their time. Auron struggled to roll onto his back. "Finish…it…" he whispered to Baralai.

Auron had been a monk of Yevon before devoting his services to following Lord Braska as a guardian. Baralai and he shared the flawed teachings of all the monks. It was the only thing that brought him to finish the job. Baralai didn't want Auron to know of the lies.

**_You're calling too late,  
Too late to be gracious  
And you do not warrant  
Long good-byes.  
__You're calling too late.  
You're calling too late.__  
You're calling too late.  
_**_-Dashboard Confessional

* * *

_

Crazy times! I know! Don't worry. I'll update soonzies! I hope this chapter was at least entertaining. Sorry, I know it was a tad boring, but what's coming up next is gonna blow ya mind!


	8. I Miss You

So, this chapter, if you can't tell, is gonna be aaaaaall flashbacks. If you've been longing for some happiness, it's this chapter. I'm doing this now because the upcoming chapters are gonna get nuts.

**_To see you when I wake up  
Is a gift I didn't think could be real.  
To know that you feel the same as I do  
Is a three-fold, utopian dream._**

_Gippal's uncontrollable pacing wore a line in the tarp flooring of Rikku's tent. Night broke through the heat, and Rikku had not returned. No diggers were allowed to be out after the sun set. The fiends got too wild once the sun went down, and with Angra Mainyu roaming the desert, Gippal feared the worst. He sent dozens of watcher machina out to the sands, all returning empty handed._

_As time passed, the speech he practiced became worse. He rambled, he stammered, he yelled, when all he really wanted to say was one simple word, 'stay.' He didn't care for how long. A week, a day, an hour, he was convinced he could make her love him in that time._

_Gippal surrendered to his madness, throwing himself on her cot. He stared at the lantern that hung lonely above him, the crickets chirping all the while in time with his racing heart beat. He despised the way her scent became familiar as he wrapped himself in her blankets. He needed Rikku there to renew the room with her presence. He never wanted to get used to her smell._

_"You are a sight for sore eyes!"Rikku said, standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. She shook the sand out of her hair, then slipped off the goggles of her alchemist dress sphere. Gippal's eye went wide. He made a motion to move, but she halted him. "Don't get up." Rikku unclipped the suede covered hardware of her shoulder pads, then slowly unzipped the long thick zippers holding her boots together. _

_Gippal watched with impatience whilst she gradually removed her dust clad alchemist gear. Next, she yanked her gloves off, finger by finger, tossing them to the tarp. The half skirt she wore over her left leg fell to the floor after she unhooked the suede belt secured around her tiny frame. Gippal's mouth watered at the sight of Rikku standing there in her teal thigh highs with the black straps running up the rest of her length, connecting to a yellow and brown flanked leotard. _

_Rikku smiled with relief, "Much better."_

_"Can I get up now? Check for toes and fingers. I was worrying my ass off about you."_

_Rikku shook her head and took a seat at his feet. "No. I want you to stay…just like that." Rikku slid down until she had her cheek nestled atop his chest. Gippal instinctively captured her with one arm around her back. "That's better."_

_Stroking her back calmly, he finally noticed the tears in her flesh. "What the hell happened out there!"_

_He tried to sit up, but she shoved him back down with the free hand that was not buried beneath his back. "Don't worry about it. Just know this, your giant fiend problem is solved."_

_"You went after that thing? On your own?"_

_She yawned and nuzzled closer to him, "No problem. Deep fried him."_

_"Rikku! You could have died!" He fingered at the deep scabs scattered across her smooth arm. "Look at what happened to you."_

_"I have more. Wanna see?"One long leg hooked around his waist. She came to an upright position, straddling his midsection with her teal legs. She folded his hand into a pointer finger and placed it atop a cut on her thigh, a bruise on her shoulder, a scrape on her neck. Rikku led his hand behind her back, and together they brought down her final zipper. _

_Gippal finally took charge of his situation, clasping her hand in his, and replacing his finger with his lips. A kiss on her cut thigh, a kiss on her bruised shoulder, a kiss on her scraped neck. "Better?" he asked._

_"You have no idea," she replied. Rikku hooked a thumb under each of the straps around her shoulder holding up her top. "But you missed some."_

_She wiggled down her thumbs, bringing her top with it. A yellow seamed white band served to contain her breasts under the leotard. With the top layer gone, Gippal could see even more spots on her tight stomach. He gently pushed her back so he could reposition himself on top. They equally shared the control of the situation. She allowed him to contain her with his body, and he, in turn, allowed her to pull off his shirt. _

_His lips pressed against the top of her breasts, then traced the outline of the impending scar with his bottom lip. While his lips trembled across every ache and every pain, his broad hands pushed the leotard down lower, bunching it down around her hips. His lips ventured lower, leaving tiny passionate imprints just above her belly button and her hip bone._

_Rikku raked her hungry fingers through his hair gently, applying a light pressure to make his kisses come quicker and harder. Gippal rested his chin just above her pelvis and smiled, "Does it make you wanna jump in a thicket of cacti?"_

_Rikku giggled softly. Though he held a devilish grin, his green eye gave him away. The way he looked at her without lust, but with something else, something more. "I want to tell you something. You don't have to say it back. You don't even have to say anything. I just…ya know…near death and what not out there." Gippal waited patiently, knowing full well what she would say. It was something he had waited years to hear. He didn't want to move. He didn't want to breathe. He wanted her to say it and die so the last thing he would have ever heard was… "I love you…Gippal, I love you."_

_Gippal immediately climbed up her torso to reach her lips. He hovered so closely above, his lips sending waves of heat just above her own. "I love you too."_

_Rikku wrenched him down to her, holding him tightly against her mostly exposed body. "That's a good thing."_

**_You do something to me that I can't explain.  
So would I be out of line if I said,  
I miss you._**

_"Sus (Mom)!" Rikku screamed at the top of her lungs._

_"E ys lusehk (I'm coming)!" Marina replied. She traversed the steps of her home two at a time. Rikku had to types of screams._

_One was the scream of a child in pain. _

_The other was the scream she used for everything else: needs, wants, annoyances, disturbances. The only problem inlaying in the fact that various important things fell under that category. This being the reason that Marina instantly arrived whenever Rikku panicked._

_Marina found Rikku standing in the kitchen with her hands firmly planted on her hips staring straight up at her mother with angry little eyes. Marina stopped a few feet from her, mirroring her body language but with a smile. "Fryd ec fnuhk, meddma uha. (What's wrong, little one.)"_

_Rikku feverishly waved a paper with a green blob on it. "Tuac drec muug mega y cactuar? Vydran cyet ed muugc mega cmesa. (Does this look like a cactuar? Father said it looks like slime.)"_

_Cid arrived at the sound of the word 'vydran (father)' with a cigarette balanced on his bottom lip. Rikku glared at him vehemently. Cid didn't feel admonished until he looked toward his wife. Marina pulled him aside and whispered in a hoarse voice, "Damm ran ed ec mujamo (Tell her it's lovely)."_

_Cid turned to Rikku, his voice mockingly sweet, "Ed ec dra sucd yllinydamo tabeldat cactuar E ryja ajan caah. (It is the most accurately depicted cactuar I have ever seen)." Rikku's 8-year-old mind tried to process her father's advanced words that he always seemed to use when he was sarcastic with her. Cid gestured at the scribbling under the green mess. "Fryd ec ymm drec tufh rana? (What is all this down here?)"_

_"Ed cyoc, 'Rybbo Pendrtyo, Gippal.' Maynh du nayt, tyt. (It says, 'Happy Birthday, Gippal.' Learn to read, dad.)"_

_Cid scoffed, "Gippal? Dryd puo ryc hud gemmat rescamv oad? (That boy hasn't killed himself yet?)"_

_Marina slapped her husband on the shoulder. "Tu hud cyo dryd. (Don't say that)."_

_"Ra cruimt ryja yd maycd mucd dryd udran aoa po huf (He should have at least lost that other eye by now)," Cid said to himself._

_Cid tapped the tip of his lit cigarette with a flick, sending tiny red embers toward the floor. A stray ash landed maliciously on the corner of her card. The small ember quickly smoldered and grabbed at more of the card. Rikku, still a child, did the only thing she could think of. She puffed sneeze like breaths at the small fire, causing it to gather and grow. "Bid ed uid! Bid ed uid! (Put it out! Put it out!)" Rikku screamed. Cid's first instinct took over. He smacked the paper out of her hand then stomped it on the ground, the birthday wish and the cactuar lost to the bottom of his boot._

_"Uhh…rana, get (here, kid)," he began, pulling out a handful of gil, "pio res cusadrehk...hela (buy him something…nice)."_

_"Hu, tyt. Ed ryc du pa cusadrehk vnus so raynd un ra femm hud mega ed (No, dad. It has to be something from my heart or he won't like it)."_

_Marina knelt down and brushed at her daughters hair with her fingers. "Fro ec drec cu esbundyhd, Rikku (Why is this so important, Rikku)?"_

_"Gippal ec kuehk du pa so puovneaht. E zicd ghuf ed. Oui lyhhud zicd pio ouin puovneaht yho umt kevd. (__Gippal is going to be my boyfriend. I just know it. You can'y just buy your boyfriend any old gift.) "_

_"Puovneaht! (Boyfriend!)" Cid shouted. "Oui yna hud ajah umt ahuikr du ghuf fryd y puovneaht ec. (__You're not even old enough to know what a boyfriend is.)"_

_Marina smiled up at Cid. She gently squeezed his hand, "Ed ec zicd y meddma lnicr. (It's just a little crush.)"_

_"Hu, sudran. Ed ec hud. Gippal yht E femm kad synneat, zicd mega oui yht tyt. Yht E femm ryja y meddma puo yht hysa res Gippal duu yht ra femm hud pa cdibet mega Pnudran. (__No, mother. It's not. Gippal and I will get married, just like you and dad. And I'll have a little boy and name him Gippal too and he won't be stupid like Brother."_

**_I see your picture,  
I smell your skin on the empty pillow next to mine.__  
You have only been gone ten days,  
But already I'm wasting away._**

_"No one would blame you if you cried," Gippal whispered. Rikku remained quiet, watching the sun pass just over the dunes. "Your cousin's boat will be in soon…Her father is gonna perform a ceremony-"_

_"I don't want them here," Rikku interrupted. "They think dancing around and praising Yevon will take my mother to their happy little Farplane, but it won't. They don't want us there."_

_Gippal had never seen Rikku in such a state. Her hair was folded loosely into itself into a braid down her back. The long cotton dress draped just below her knees. The black shroud fit her poorly. Gippal strived to find her attractive to get his mind off his sadness, but the spark, the energy, the strength, that's where his attraction lied. Without it, she was just another mourner, like him. Dead at thirteen-years-old, that's how she seemed._

_"I don't know where people go when they die, Rikku, but I know your mom loved you very, very much."_

_Rikku refused to face him. Thousands had watched Marina's coffin being interred into the hot sand. Soon, Braska and his family would arrive to send her to the Farplane. The others who died, they were buried, but because the meuh's family was associated with the Yevonites, they were privileged enough to get a real funeral._

_"Say something," Gippal pleaded. "If you're sad, show it."_

_She tossed a glance back at him, her eyes begging to release tears, but never announcing their sorrow. Her eyes returned to the setting sun. "It's hard…when you always have a hand to hold…and one day…it's gone. I never knew drowning until the one day there was no one to rescue me."_

_Gippal stood next to her. The Al Bhed chose a shaded spot beneath the ruins to leave Marina's remains. The deconstruction of the old machina ruins suited Marina's grave. They suited Rikku's deteriorating mood. Gippal reached for her hand. Her tiny hand fit into the curve of his palm like a missing puzzle piece. _

_"Are you wearing my barrettes?" Rikku asked._

_"Your mother gave them to you, and you gave them to me on my ninth birthday."_

_Gippal reached up to remove them, but Rikku pulled his hand down. "Keep them. There are so many other things she's given me."_

_A rebellious tear broke free of Rikku's eye, leaving a wet trail behind. He wanted her to cry. He wanted her to let go of the pain. But seeing that lone tear sent shockwaves of misery through his being. What would it take to undo that moment? "I'll stop Sin…someday."_

_"Me too," Rikku agreed. "We have to protect each other, Gippal. We have to stop Sin from killing my dad, my brother, our friends, and you and me. And we have to fight until…until…"_

_Gippal found hope and strength in her words. She aged so greatly in a matter of moments. Holding her hand, holding Marina's hand, he felt safe knowing a lioness guarded him. "Until what?" he asked._

"_I'll protect everyone until…I'm flailing in the water and I drown," she said with a pathetic laugh. The tail end of her monologue had not been well thought out._

_Gippal didn't laugh along with her. "That won't happen. I won't let that happen."_

_**I know I'll see you again  
whether far or soon.  
But I need you to know that I care****  
And I miss you.  
**-Incubus_


	9. Unfinished Business

You guys know how much I love whoring out music! Today's song: Unfinished Business by White Lies is…AMAZING! Anyways, apart from that, you guys are always awesome for giving me reviews. Thanks sooooooooo much. In this chapter, there's a reference to Via Purifico. In Final Fantasy X it's where everybody gets sentenced to for attacking the Seymour in Bevelle. Rikku, Wakka, and Tidus are in the sewers and the other guardians and Yuna are above ground in a labyrinth.

**_Just give me a second, darling, to clear my head.  
Just put down those scissors, baby, on the single bed.  
The sand in the hour glass is running low.  
I came through thunder, the cold wind, the rain, and the snow  
To find you awake by your window sill,  
A sight for sore eyes and a view to kill_**

Ten days had passed and there had still been no sign of Rikku. Gippal combed every inch of the desert on a hover, hoping to find traces of her.

Work did not serve as a distraction. With Baralai gone, Bevelle was off limits to him, meaning he couldn't enter the temple and draw up a floor plan. Workers had already been sent to start building the base. The schematics and layouts for the cement base piled on his floor and desk, but Gippal couldn't bring himself to touch them. She was the only thing that made any of his achievements valid. Like the way a child works hard in school to impress a parent, Gippal slaved over Bikanel to make her, and only her, proud. If she was gone, who was he working for? The desert was just sand without her. His room was just furniture and walls without her.

Gippal sat in his bed tossing the sphere she viewed without his permission. He replayed the words that sent her running from him again, each time catching himself when he accused her of changing.

She was sticking her neck out to help someone, of that he was sure. What bothered him was that she hadn't changed a bit. No matter how he tried, Spira was more important. Saving Yuna, defeating Sin, stopping Vegnagun. They always came first. He felt so petty.

When would it be his turn to be rescued?

He recalled the words he shouted with passionate anger when she left him in the desert: _If you're looking to start something between us then we'd both have to hold off on saving the world. Are you ready to do that? You think you could give up the world for ten minutes and just…be with me?_

He had been so able and ready to drop everything and be with _her_, how long before she could feel the same?

Gippal's mind split and raced, t he way it always seemed to do when he couldn't have what he wanted with her.

She was poison.

A deadly toxin.

To which he was completely addicted.

He didn't care if she was screaming, or laughing, or crying he just needed to hear her.

Gippal had apologized so profusely to get her back the first time. Could it work again? He wasn't even sure if he deserved the second shot.

But she loved him! She told him. She meant it.

Gippal pulled at his hair like a junkie with withdrawals, questioning every tiny detail: _If she loved me, why would she let this bother her? Why wouldn't she open up to me? But if I loved her, why would it matter? Where is she and how do I get her back?_

_Knock. Knock_.

"Yeah?" Gippal called from his bedroom. He silently prayed it was Brother. At least if he got his head bashed in until he was unconscious he could finally get some sleep.

When no reply came, he thrust himself from his mattress and went to the door. He knew he was in no shape to socialize with his eye patch resting on his night stand, his bare torso covered in cold sweat, and his boots tucked under the couch. Still, he opened the door.

A sharp ache stormed his chest like a torpedo, sending electric stings to every cell in his body. He dropped to the floor and let his mind fade to black, just before hearing the impending words of a familiar husky voice, "Put him with the others."

**_I broke down in horror at you standing there.  
The glow from the moon shone through cracks in your hair.  
I shouted with passion, "I love you so much,"  
But feeling my skin it was cold to the touch.  
You whispered, "Where are you?"  
I questioned in doubt.  
But soon realized you were talking to God now._**

Rikku forced herself awake when she felt damp pressure being applied to the small of her back. She rolled over to find her giant lupe friend nudging her gently. "I guess it's you and me again, buddy," she said with a sigh.

The lupe howled in response.

Rikku took a moment to take in her surroundings. Large pillars on the floor sprawled out in shambles, the remains of teleporters. She could hear the faint echoes of running water bellowing through the maroon halls. Terror swelled in her chest as she realized her location. "Well, the upside is, I'm not in the sewers this time. The down side is, I'm all alone this time." She laughed and mocked the guard who left her to rot in the sewers below years before, "'No one escapes the Via Purifico, not no way, not no how.' Pff…watch me." She attempted to stumble to her feet, but a piercing pain in her chest halted her. Rikku rubbed at the tiny holes left behind from where the arrow sank in.

She could not recall removing the barbs. The lupe struggled to pull his own arrow out, but his neck was too short to reach. Rikku beckoned for him. He whimpered and offered his side to her.

"Just think happy thoughts," she said. Rikku laughed at herself for thinking she saw the lupe wince as she pulled out the barbs. He was a trusting animal. Removing the arrow left three hemorrhaging holes in his side. Rikku pulled off her scarf to apply pressure to his wounds. "I'm not exactly a nurse, but I hope this helps." The lupe whimpered again.

"Aww, he made a friend," an approaching monk mocked as he entered.

Rikku made a reach for her blades but found them missing. A large woman joined the monk's side and slapped him hard on the back of his bald head. "Don't be stupid. It's his daughter." The lupe stood in front of Rikku vigilantly. The woman put out her hand to pet it, but the large fiend snapped and growled. "Be nice, Cid, or I'll have to take out my anger on your brat."

"What are we doing with her?" the monk asked.

The woman advanced to Rikku. "Hmm…as an ex-Gullwing, I was thinking something with flight abilities. A grimy zu perhaps?" She threw her head back in laughter, sending Rikku into a frenzy. Rikku leapt at the woman, ignoring her wounds. A strong arm gripped Rikku by the wrist then tossed her like a rag doll to the ground. The lupe shot forward in retaliation, but the woman planted a hard boot on his nose. "It seems our celebrities have terrible tempers. Bring that arrogant prick down here until we can get that stupid worm moved. Have we found Rin?" The monk shook his head in shame. "Well, don't just stand there. My collection of famous Al Bhed won't be complete without him, the brother, Nhadala, Buddy, and whatever that kid's name is."

The monk saluted. "The workers are flocking to Luca now. Should I put Cid in there with them?"

The giant woman grabbed a fistful of the lupe's fur, "Have you ever had a berserk spell cast on you, Cid? It rips at your brain like a parasite until you go completely mad."

Rikku squirmed, trying to recover. Her back screamed in agony from where her tailbone collided with the hard ground. "What do you want with us!" she pleaded.

"Is dying too much to ask?"

"You're a monster!" Rikku shouted.

"I'm a god! You dastardly sand monkeys have been allowed to pollute Spira for far too long. I'm simply collecting the garbage." The woman pulled at the lupe again. "Say goodbye to your little princess, Cid."

Rikku attempted the only attack she could conjure at the time. She slipped off one of her heavy boots and launched it wildly at the lupes capturer. "I don't know who you are or what that is, but you messed with the wrong race. The Al Bhed's leader will come for you! And he'll bring my father and a whole army of airships!"

"Your father?" The woman looked at Rikku and then glared deeply into the spiraling eyes of the lupe, "Your father is a mangy, flee ridden, haggard lupe. Your leader will be a revolting, writhing worm, and you, my dear, will be feathery, squawking, sordid zu!"

"…_Vydran_ (Father)," she whispered in disbelief.

"That's right, princess. Look how the true colors of the Al Bhed people shine! He's just as ugly as the sandy blood that courses through his veins now."

**_You've got blood on your hands,  
And I know it's mine,  
I just need more time,  
So get off your low  
Let's dance like we used to._**

"This is Brother to Buddy, over."

Buddy shot awake from his napping post at the helm of the Rift. "Uh…um…hello?" Buddy fumbled with the controls, searching for the CommSphere. He pounded at buttons calling, "This is Buddy, over."

"You must come quick! Things are all out disasterific down here!" Brother's voice called.

"Where are you, man?" he asked, finally making contact with the CommSphere.

Brother's face was a tan silhouette against a war scene. In the background, machina cannons exploded and bald men dove to the floor. "I'm in Djose! You must hurry before I get deep fried?"

"Gippal told you to be careful and notcross wires with his machina. What's going on?"

Brother waved his tattooed arms in frustration. "They're not malfunctioning, _eteud_ (idiot), they're fighting! We're under attack!"

Buddy still carried on half asleep, "How did you even find this channel?"

"It's a freaking state of the emergency!" Brother replied in his broken tongue, rolling his r's briskly. "I sent out a distress signal to all the ships."

"Hmm…well…if it's that serious." Buddy thought of the trio still down in Via Infinito. The ship was parked inside a murky water cannel. Buddy could remain there undetected. He had not heard from Baralai, Lulu, or Paine in almost a day. Last he heard, they had found Auron and were staying behind to clean up some of the extra fiends. Just when they thought they were done, they would come across another old friend, begging to be sent. Buddy wondered if they knew just how much time had passed since the day they took the plunge back into the infernal abyss. "I'm on my way, but we gotta make this quick."

"Hurry!" Brother screeched. "And find my _vydran_ (father)."

"Your father?"

"Yes!" Brother confirmed. "I can't find that _chyga_ (snake), Gippal. My _vydran_ will know what to do about this."

**_But there's a light in the distance,  
Waiting for me.  
I will wait for you,  
So get off your low,  
Let's kiss like we used to._**

Rikku traversed the halls in a futile effort to find her father. She didn't know how the evil woman and her minions were teleporting through the labyrinth, but if she could just find the hub for the teleporters, she could reconstruct it and find her way out. Unfortunately, the task was easier said than done.

Every left turn yielded a right turn. Every right turn; a wall or trap. They called Via Purifico a labyrinth, but Rikku knew better. It was a torture chamber. At least the sewers had an oubliette-like construction, she could get out through the ceiling if she could bypass the fiends and traps. But above ground, there were no doors, no openings, no holes. Nothing.

After what felt like hours of drifting through the endless halls, Rikku surrendered to her eminent death. She leaned her head against the wall and rambled to herself, "This is how you're gonna go, ol' girl. No friends. No boy. No family. You really did a number on yourself."

She squatted down next to a boulder with a large black rock beside it. Rikku rested against the boulder and placed the palm on the rock. As she did, she noticed the rock had a soft feel to it. She slid her palm across it, only to be attacked by a vice-like squeeze. She panicked momentarily, until she realized the rock was connected to a neck, connected to a chest, connected to a body, and that the head beneath the bag was biting at her fingers. The body's head lay cloaked beneath a black satchel, tied at the neck. The bare arms were linked and tied behind the body's bare back. She admired the body quickly for it was remarkably built. But she knew it wasn't the time. Rikku attempted to release the knot about the neck, but the body jerk and flailed. "Get your filthy hands off of me!" a familiar voice shouted from under the bag.

"Gippal?" Rikku asked.

"Cid's girl?" the bag replied.

Rikku snatched at the top of the bag before untying the knot, causing the tight hole to scrape along Gippal's head and flick his nose. He shook his head and waited for his eye to adjust to the light. Rikku noticed his missing eye patch. His grey eye held so many memories for her. Before he acquired his eye patch, she remembered how the Al Bhed boys would tease. Gippal would cry and run next door to Rikku's house. He waited in Marina's garden until Rikku's mother would return. Each time, Marina would find him cuddled in fetal position in her cacti. Rikku watched from her bedroom as Marina would kiss the eyelid over his bad eye and send him home.

"I guess this rules out the option of you rescuing me," Rikku said with a laugh.

"I was thinking the same thing," he agreed. Rikku helped him untie his wrists, but then he sat up across from her. It seemed like miles between them. She wanted to heal the arrow wounds on his chest. She wanted to kiss his eyelid. But he just sat there, alone, staring at his hands on his lap. "Where are we?" he finally asked.

"Underneath Bevelle. There's a way out of here, I just don't know where."

"That helps." Rikku beamed at his sarcastic remark. "Sorry." Rikku turned away. She wondered where to start. At least now she had a companion, if she could still call him that. "You know, now would be a good time to divulge those secrets you've been keeping from me."

"Look who's talking!" she snapped back.

"Listen, in the interest of saving my own damn life, I'll let you in on some information. The Al Bhed's were hired to go to Luca and build a replica of the Bevelle Machina Temple. I didn't wanna tell you because I knew you'd get uppity about the Al Bhed working with the Yevonites."

"Luca?" Rikku questioned. "That's where they're sending my dad."

"Your dad? He was here?"

Rikku sunk into the boulder. The large spiraling eyes still haunted her, fresh in her memory. She wished she could have tried harder to save the lupe from being taken. If she had only known. "…They turned him into a fiend."

"They? They who?"

Rikku shrugged. "Yevon priests and some Ronso-lookin' bitch. As soon as I get out of here, I'm gonna rip her limb from limb."

"Dammit," Gippal cursed to himself. "I thought I heard her when I got shot at my house."

"Listen, I'm not gonna tell you this as some purging of my soul, I'm gonna tell you this so you can put together the pieces and figure out what's going on."

"Proceed," Gippal said smugly.

"_Cri dib _(Shut up), Gippal." Gippal blushed with shame even though he remained smirking slyly. "I found Auron wandering around the desert, unsent, and talking about Via Infinito."

"Auron? Like _dead_ Auron?"

"Yes," Rikku confirmed. "I was gonna check it out, but I couldn't go alone. I asked Paine to help me, but she said she, Baralai, Lulu, and Buddy would do it. She didn't want me getting involved. I still don't know what happened down there. After you and me…after our argument, I ended up in the desert followed by a giant lupe. Then I wound up with an arrow through my chest and some gigantour broad telling me that the fiend is my dad, she's heading to Luca, and she's gonna turn you into a worm and me into a zu." She announced the last bit all in one breath. Gippal tilted his head in confusion because of the entire idea and trying to separate all of Rikku's words. "There you have it, _meuh_," she said in a condescending tone. "Got any bright ideas now."

"Well, we gotta get out of here first."

"Good luck with that. I can barely stand up straight, I don't have any weapons, and every hallway is a dead end or a hallway leading to a dead end."

Gippal strained to get up on his feet. Then, he crouched down with his back facing Rikku. "Hop on. Surely there's a way out of here. I'm strong enough to walk and you know which halls you've already checked. We'll get out of here in no time." She admired the way he stayed upbeat though death licked at her necks. Gippal, however, admired his acting skills. When he stood, he could feel stray barbs that slept beneath his skin. He could feel them poking and prodding with every breath. He didn't know how long he could support the both of them, but he would go for as long as he possibly could. After all, he wouldn't be much of a knight if he left the damsel in distress.

**_I looked in the mirror,  
But something was wrong.  
I saw you behind,  
But my reflection was gone._**

"This place is a never ending chasm of unsents!" Lulu cried in despair. Hunger and fatigue served to remind her that she was still alive, barely. Her spellspring was running dry. Youth was not on her side anymore. She watched Baralai and Paine continue ahead of her .

Paine glanced over her shoulder at the struggling black mage. "Are you alright, Lulu?"

Lulu sat down on the floor, wiping sweat from her brow with her long black sleeve. "I just need some rest. I'm not as youthful as I used to be, I'm afraid."

"You'll be food for the dead," Baralai declared flatly.

Paine nudged his side. "Listen, we've handled the bulk of these fiends. Maybe you should head back to the airship. You could go topside and get a hold of Rikku and tell her to keep watch and Gippal."

Lulu nodded. "Maybe that would be for the best. Besides, I'm sure Wakka is beginning to suspect my vacation was a lie."

Paine pulled a CommSphere from her pack to reach Buddy at the surface. "Buddy…come in, Buddy." Silence. "Buddy? Buddy, are you there?" Silence.

Lulu's eyes filled with dread. "He must be sleeping," she lied to keep herself calm.

"Maybe we should all start heading back," Paine said hesitantly.

Baralai shook his head and continued down the hall without the women. "As a Praetor of Yevon, it would be reckless of me to leave all these unsent terrors down here. You guys go, I can handle this."

Lulu didn't believe in his skill and neither did Paine, but Paine agreed to the plan if only to get away from him. Since his confession about his knowledge of Terra's plan, she didn't feel as safe around him. The things he did to cover his career worried her greatly. "Fine. Lulu, can you stand you?"

The black mage wobbled onto her boots and refused Paine's hand to stable her. "I'm not that old. Come, let's rid ourselves of this horrible, horrible place."

**_There was smoke in the fireplace as white as the snow,  
A voice then came gently, "Now, it's time to go."  
That record you played  
As you beg for forgiveness  
"Don't touch me!" I screamed,  
"I've got unfinished business."_**

Brother strung another cable along a stone pillar. The cables met in the middle of the room atop a grandiose pile of explosives. "_Ev dra Yevonites fyhd drec dasbma, drao lyh ryja ed_! (If the Yevonites want this temple, they can have it!)" He programmed the timing of the bomb into the detonator in his hand, then called to his comrades. "Shinra! Buddy! _Ryja oui nekkat dra mevd oad?_ (Have you rigged the lift yet?)"

Shinra arrived at the base of the stairs covered in perspiration with Buddy at his side. Buddy gave Brother the thumbs up signal, "This place is gonna sizzle like a Sanubian cookout."

"You sure this is a good idea?" Shinra questioned. "Gippal won't be too happy if you blow up the Machine Faction Headquarters. It doesn't really speak for you as a leader."

"What are you talking about!? Gippal is nowhere. If he really cared, he would be down here with a stick of dynamite. It's like my _vydran_ always says 'There's nothing left to do but destroy the ship and all go down together!'" He said, trying to use his best Cid impression.

"The last time Cid did that, the Al Bhed were left without a home for years," Shinra stated in an unenthusiastic tone.

"_Crid ib_! (Shut up!) I am the leader. Now, let's start heading out, my trigger finger is getting sweaty."

"Maybe I should hold the detonator," Buddy offered.

Brother huffed like a child throwing a tantrum, true to his nature. "_E ys dra maytan. Yht yc dra maytan E cyo...Buddy, oui rumt dra taduhydun._( I am the leader. And as the leader I say...Buddy, you hold the detonator.)"

**_You've got blood on your hands,  
And I know it's mine,  
I just need more time,  
So get off your low  
Let's dance like we used to._**

Gippal's heavy steps were coming to a finale. His body throbbed with agony from his wounds and Rikku's weight. It didn't help that his feet were bare on the rocky ground and his back was naked against Rikku's bare stomach. Their body heats generated vast amounts of sweat and warmth. His muscles begged for relief, but Rikku continued to cry, "March, meuh!"

At last, Gippal's exhaustion defeated him. He toppled down to the floor, bringing Rikku's spindly arms and legs with him. "That's it?" she cried. "You're giving up?"

"I am not. I'm just tired. Can we rest for like…five minutes?"

Rikku leaned over him. He instinctively covered his blind eye with his arm as she inspected him. She could see the fresh wounds on his chest waiting for their chance to heal. She fingered one softly and he winced. "I guess we can stop for a few minutes."

"Thank you."

Rikku sat with her back against the cool wall and Gippal laid across the floor, still hiding his eye. After moments of awkward silence, Rikku folded her arms across her perspiring chest, "You know, this could have all been avoided."

"If we never met?"

The comment stung Rikku. The callousness of the words surprised even Gippal, but he wasn't taking them back any time soon. "No. I meant, if you wouldn't have yelled at me, I wouldn't have walked out. I wouldn't have been caught out in the desert."

He smacked her lightly, "You would have been caught eventually. Besides, if you would have just let me in a little so-"

"So what?" she interrupted, "so you could get wrapped up in my stupid plans for saving the world? I didn't want you getting hurt." Her confessions came out in an angry voice. Gippal couldn't decide whether she was being sincere, upset, or both.

"You always do this. You run out to save the world from Sin and from Vegnagun and you leave me behind."

"It's for your own protection. I lost my mother to Sin, I wasn't gonna lose you to it too." Gippal was ready to interrupt, but he stopped short due to her words. He lifted his arm to look at her with both of his eyes. His good eye watched her face swell with frustration and his bad eye still saw the angel at her father's party, the girl trying not to cry at her mother's funeral, the girl he stole a kiss from inside an airship hangar, the girl he used to chat with out on the dunes, the girl who gave him her barrettes as a birthday gift.

"We're not good at this, are we?" Rikku shook her head. "I can't promise that I'll always be honest. But I can promise that I'll always want to. I can't promise that I won't get frustrated when you keep secrets. But I can promise I'll love you no matter what."

"And I can't promise I won't save the world. But I can promise I'll always save you first."

Gippal settled the hand that had been covering his bad eye with into the palms that were bundled on her lap. "On a good day, I can't stand you. On a bad day, I am infected by you and find myself wondering where you are, what you're doing, if you miss me, if you need me. You drive me absolutely insane and yet, you are the only thing in my life that makes sense. I mean…the things you do don't make sense…but you…_us_…we make sense…together."

"We make havoc together," Rikku corrected.

"I love it."

"I love you."

Gippal smiled warmly. The couple repositioned so Gippal lay between her legs, with his head rested in her lap. Rikku stroked his forehead, still leaning against the wall. "So, what next?"

Rikku bent her head down and left a soft kiss on his blind eyelid. He could see that angel again, this time with both eyes. "We are gonna stick to our promises until we become emotionally mature adults." Gippal laughed at the idea. "Until then, you and I are gonna rest until we can figure out a way to get the hell out of here."

**_But there's a light in the distance,  
Waiting for me.  
I will wait for you,  
So get off your low,  
Let's kiss like we used to.  
_**_-White Lies

* * *

_

Woooooow! Another chapter done! Next chapter is going to get a tad…racy…so…ya know…skip over it if you'd like. But ya'll knew it was coming eventually. I rated it for a reason!


	10. Summer Romance AntiGravity Love Song

So ya'll saw this chapter coming. Because I warned you last chapter? Maybe. Because sometimes…when two people are in love they choose to express it…physically? Maybe. Because I gave it an M rating? Probably. But, I've designed it for the squeamish at heart to have an escape route. If the racy stuff isn't your cup of tea, just read the italic parts, including the song…because it's amazing. I'm gonna go jam out to it right now. Thanks for reviews. You guys rule!

**_I'm home alone tonight.  
__Full moon illuminates my room,  
And sends my mind aflight.  
__I think I was dreaming up some thoughts that were seemingly possible  
With you_**

"Are you falling asleep up there?" Gippal asked from his spot on her lap. Rikku opened her hazy eyes to the halls of Via Purifico. She half expected to wake up and find it all a dream. A part of her was still wandering half alive in the desert. Gippal's futile efforts of bringing her back to the real world failed at first. Then, he gently tapped at her face with his palm. "Don't die on me yet, Cid's girl."

Rikku yawned loudly, "Sorry."

"You can sleep in a place like this?"

"Trust me, as far as creepy dungeons go, this is the luxury sweet."She shifted her weight slowly, remembering the wound on her chest. The tight skin encasing her heart and lungs squeezed as she tried to sit up straighter. She whimpered at the pain, trying not to worry Gippal.

But Gippal was keen to every noise that came out of her. He recognized her pain instantly and asked, "You okay?"

"She didn't have to shoot me, ya know. I think I might be a pushover. She probably could have just threatened me and I'd have come," she joked. Gippal struggled to find the humor in their situation. "It'll heal. It's just sore right now."

Gippal turned over and came up on his knees. He knelt across from her as she sat flat on her bottom with her legs stretched out on either side of him. Gippal inspected the wound with his good eye. The coin sized wounds puckered at the edges where the blood strived to harden and protect itself. If she stretched hard enough, they would break loose and bleed again. He tried to remain tender for the circumstances. Shirt ripping and screaming in passion were all well and fine and Gippal preferred it greatly, but he wanted to kiss her and he was on her terms.

Gippal slowly lowered his face to the spot. Their breaths opposed each other; as her chest heaved to inhale, his breath released in soft puffs across the bare part of her chest. His hands lingered anxiously at his side until she laced her fingers in his to pull him closer. His dry lips went moist, knowing full well they had a job to do. He marked her wound with three light kisses atop each threatening scar. Rikku's heart raced quicker with each one, the sound of which echoed like thunder in her ears.

Gippal pulled back and grinned.

**_So I call you on the tin can phone.__  
We rendezvous by quarter-to,  
And make sure we're alone.  
I think I've found a way for you and I to finally fly free._**

"_I'd like to buy a tent," Rikku explained to the Al Bhed woman behind the counter of Rin's Thunder Planes travel agency."_

_The woman's eyes went wide, shocked and confused, "Lusa ykyeh? (Come again?)"_

"_Y dahd, (A tent)" she repeated in the woman's native tongue._

"_Ma'am, I don't think that would be a wise decision." In the distance, lightning searched the vast planes for the towers, but some stray bolts still played tag with the open areas. The steel poles of the tent were like bull's eyes._

"_Listen, lady, I got money to spend here. Gimme' a tent." With Sin defeated and her father urging her to join the rest of the world and live a little, Rikku could spare some time to get over her childish fear of thunder and lightning._

"_I think you'd be much safer in here. I'll even give you a discount."_

_Rikku shook her head. She traversed the planes to the inn wearing a ghastly pair of yellow rain boots. As she argued with the inn keeper, Rikku slipped on a pair of heavy black rubber welding gloves. "I'm sure I'll be fine. Thanks anyways."_

_The woman eventually surrendered and handed her a tent. The tanned canvas had been coiled into itself with the rods secured in the center; an Al Bhed seal of craftsmanship labeled the front._

_As Rikku exited with her tent under arm, she tried to remember the Al Bhed rules of Spiran lightning dodging. When lightning is about to touch down, the sky above tears into a thin white line. The lightning comes from that opening alone. Generally, the rule to follow was: If the crack in the sky is above, the lightning will crash below._

"_I hope you're not planning anything foolish," Rin offered. He arrived hauling a wagon of supplies behind him, the boxes all marked with the Al Bhed seal._

_Rikku grinned, "Nothing more foolish than usual."_

_Rin's distinct voice filled Rikku's ears with advice she carried with her long after her night on the Thunder Planes: "When the moment is right, do not hesitate. Moments come quickly like a gunshot. When the opportunity arrives, make the necessary move."_

"_Um...what?" Rikku asked._

_Rin snickered in a low tone at her confusion. "When you see that crack the sky, jump."_

**_When we get there,  
We're gonna fly so far away,__  
Making sure to laugh;  
While we experience anti-gravity.  
Anti-gravity_**

Rikku stared down at Gippal's expectant lips and remembered those fateful words:_ When the opportunity arrives, make the necessary move._

Rikku crushed her lips into his. Her bare fingers shoved Gippal down to the hard ground with a gentle force, both lovers ignoring their wounds and their confusion. Gippal straightened his legs to get more comfortable as Rikku crawled up his bare chest. Rikku broke the kiss momentarily to whisper in a hoarse voice, "I don't know what I'm doing."

Gippal laughed quietly. "So far so good. But are you sure you wouldn't want something a little more romantic? Candles, flowers, bubble bath?"

"Gippal, this romance is as far from a romance as one can get. A deadly labyrinth in the midst of a growing holy war _is_ candles and flowers for me."

Gippal smiled in response and said, "Well then…continue."

Rikku happily obliged. Her mouth traveled back to its previous destination and Gippal's hands came up to pull her closer. The palm he placed across the smooth span of her back took comfort in feeling every muscle contract and stretch in response to his electric touch.

Every player arrived on cue. Their tongues met precisely between their two hungry mouths. Their hands explored every inch of bare skin they could gather before craving more. Rikku's hips pressed gently into his with enough pressure for him to know what she was expecting. Rikku caught Gippal's face in her hands. She took a quick pleasure, feeling the bare skin where his eye patch usually crossed and covered. Gippal recognized the small gesture and smirked into the kiss. She giggled in response. The pair of ragged breaths fell into opposition again. The oxygen Rikku took in gasps and short breaths came mixed with the carbon dioxide Gippal released in pants. She could survive on this alone. Whatever came from him would suffice and sustain her for a lifetime.

Gippal questioned hesitance as his next move but quickly dismissed it. She made her desire very clear and there was no point in denying her, especially not when perfect moments with her were so rare. The last time he found himself in this position, his hesitance was partially to blame for his lack of success in subduing her. This time, he would have his prize. He unknotted the tie that secured Rikku's bare skin in a yellow trap. She happily met him half way by untying the loops about her neck. They both hastily tossed the garment to the ground.

Gippal found himself in a struggle. He wanted to see what the yellow top had secured for so many years, but each time he opened his eyes lids, his eyes would roll back into his skull in response to the throngs of pleasure waves sent out but the mere thought of seeing Rikku undressed. Finally, his body adjusted to the excess sensations just enough for his good eye to catch a glimpse of what his hands were so busily kneading. And just as he assumed, it was perfection, like every other ounce of Rikku. Their lips had not parted since it began.

Rikku never knew surrendering could feel so wonderful. His rugged grasp fondling her sensitive undiscovered skin caused her to growl and moan in ways she never imagined. She wanted this moment to be perfect with no clichés, but she couldn't help but moan his name in between breaths.

"Gippal…" she breathed.

At the call of his name, he pulled his lips away. The mere sound of her voice forming to say his name sent tsunamis of fire through his veins. They both seized the opportunity to claim fresh air. Not that the euphoric toxins released in each partner's breath weren't completely arousing, but Rikku was sure if she didn't get a hold of pure oxygen she might go into a frenzy and never allow his mouth to leave hers. She wondered how bad that would be. Rikku threw her head back to keep from finding out. Her braids trickled down her back and stuck to the areas where sweat had begun to pool.

"Hey, I'm gonna need to take the reins here for this next part," he commanded happily. She didn't say a word in response; she simply grinned devilishly and leaned back onto her heals. Gippal forced her down lightly to the ground from there, using her new position to his advantage.

Rikku welcomed the feel of the cold ground on her bare back and backs of her legs because the kisses he planted on her face and neck quickly traveled lower creating even more of a dizzying blaze in her lower stomach. The moist imprints he left atop her collar bone finally came to a standstill on top of her right nipple. Her back arched automatically. Gippal's tongue flicked softly between his lip and her exposed breast while his other hand continued to squeeze her other breast. She again moaned his name, this time with an even deeper growl. Her hands went mad in their idle state, so she allowed them to burrow into Gippal's thick blonde hair, combing through with every sweep of his tongue against her sensitive skin. Gippal released his mouth but only so he could switch sides, this breast tasting sweeter and yet, just as sweet.

He longed to torture her further. His hands explored deeper as his kisses returned to her collarbone. Gippal's palms formed a stroking pattern up and down her smooth thighs stopping just above her knee and just below the seams of her yellow bikini bottom. Rikku caught onto his rhythm and used it to her advantage. As his hands ventured back up, she writhed her bottom lower beneath him, causing a stray finger to brush over the fabric between her legs as light as air, but just enough to make her crave more. As punishment for getting ahead of herself, Gippal brought his hands back to her hips but brought his face down to her navel. Rikku could feel his warm breath gusting over her belly button. His thumbs swept over the zipper of her khaki skirt, annoying her further.

"Ugh," she groaned in frustration, "just take it off. We both know you want to." He chuckled just before lowering her zipper one painful tooth at a time. The sound of the metal teeth releasing from one another echoed loudly in Rikku's brain. She wanted to torture him the same way, but knew when it came time to unzip him, she'd be much more hasty. When the zipper reached the end of its track, Rikku squirmed and wiggled to help Gippal remove the skirt completely. All that remained were Gippal's black pants and the bottom half of Rikku's bright yellow bikini. Neither Al Bhed could decide which one should come off first.

Rikku urgently made the next move by pulling Gippal's mouth and hands back up to her face and yanking at the clasps on his pants while he was distracted with her kiss. Gippal planted two strong arms on either side of her to gather balance while she undressed him. Visually, Rikku wasn't sure what to expect for she had never been intimate with a man before. All her instincts told her was that whatever was beneath she _had_ to have. She was too impatient to wait for the entirety of his bottoms to come off. As soon as she had enough space for her slender fingers to sneak in and wrap around his manhood, they seized the opportunity gladly. Gippal moaned into the deep kiss he was struggling to concentrate on. His balance wavered beneath him and his mind raced with thoughts of releasing his arms so he could burry himself into her.

The soft skin flexing hard in her palm was an excitement she awaited the moment she realized she loved Gippal. Being in love with him told her that someday she would want to make love to him. Now that the moment was hers, she ravaged every second of it. Rikku's gentle fingers slid over the skin, back in forth in the same metronome rhythm Gippal used on her thighs. To counterattack the waves of ecstasy filling his being, Gippal worked a thumb under each corner of her bikini bottom and dragged the remaining clothing article down past her bottom.

That was when the dream-like world of elation became a blissful reality. It wasn't just anyone making her feel so grand, and it wasn't just any voice calling his name.

He finally had her.

That was the reality of the situation.

No matter what level of rapture his brain and body departed to or how deep of a sexual trance Rikku was in.

They had each other now.

Completely.

Gippal looked down before taking the final step and whispered, "I love you. I know that's cheesy…but…while we're still in the real world…I wanted you to know."

"I love you too," she replied with a joyous tear forming in the pane of her eye.

Uncertainty and indecision ceased.

Gippal slowly lowered himself between his legs. Rikku instinctively braced herself, unsure for what exactly. As he tenderly slid past her entrance, he applied a soft pressure to break through the thin barrier separating him from entering her completely. The pain felt like a stab, but Gippal replaced it with elated pleasure when he worked into a steady cadence. Rikku's timid bucking hips fell into tempo with his rhythm. Soon, they were progressing in time with one another. Rikku fell back into her dream world of sensation, reminding herself of his words so she knew there would be no waking up.

This was it.

This was reality.

They were making love.

Each kiss and ecstatic moan grew in passion as the fiery feeling grew in the pit of her stomach. Rikku was uncertain of the sensation's origin. All she knew was that Gippal being inside of her made it grow and squelched it all at once. Gippal's pace quickened and Rikku followed without missing a beat, every time going slightly deeper or slightly harder. Gippal's intense arousal mirrored Rikku's own. He too felt his body culminating into one pinnacle wave of passion. He had to hold off on releasing this until he was absolutely sure Rikku was at the same level.

Rikku dismissed his doubt when she screamed, "Gippal…I feel like I'm going to explode!"

Gippal felt her walls tighten and tremble around him as Rikku let out a final exasperated moan. The aching fire had been put out; leaving a smoldering ember that could quickly grow into an inferno again with any touch from Gippal. Gippal's body released in a perfect reflection of her own orgasm. He shuttered between her legs while the passion inside of him emptied to join her own.

With their bodies still in pleasure overdrive, their young minds desperately screamed out to reality.

"I love you," she said.

"I love you," he replied.

**_For years, I kept it to myself.__  
Now potentialities are bound,  
Are living under my shelf.  
Simply choose your destination from the diamond canopy,  
And we'll be there._**

_Rikku slipped down the stairs, one gangly leg after another. She was thirteen and her mother had finally allowed her to wear a two piece bathing suit. The top was still a touch too loose, but Marina assured her daughter she would blossom into it. _

_"That yellow color is very becoming on you, Rikku," Marina stated, carrying two glasses of freezing water. Rikku attempted to snatch one up, it was a hot day, even for an Al Bhed. Marina lurched back. "These aren't for you. Your father is working on some machina to end all machina down there and-" she stopped short when the basement door opened._

_Gippal stretched out in the door way. His sweaty undershirt was slung over his greasy shoulder. Suddenly, Rikku found herself wishing that 'blossoming' day would appear instantaneously. She could feel her whole body blushing. She quickly unfolded the towel under her arm and wrapped it around her teenage body. Gippal was only two years older but already it seemed puberty had shined in his favor. Muscles she didn't even know boys had sprung up on his abdomen and biceps and called to her like electricity._

_Marina watched the awkward tension build as Rikku studied Gippal's new physique and Gippal found himself wondering just how far up underneath that towel Rikku's legs went. "Gippal!" Marina called. "How are things going down there?"_

_Gippal snapped out of his trance but his eyes kept wandering to the hem of the towel. "It's fine. We've got a lot of loose wires to get taken care of, but it's looking good."_

_"Are you boys thirsty? I was just about to bring you some water."_

_Gippal used his shirt to wipe sweat from his brow. "Actually, I'm clocking out for the day. It's way too hot in that basement. I was gonna ask to use your shower."_

_Rikku's blush grew deeper at the thought of Gippal disrobing anywhere in her house. "You know, Rikku and some friends are taking some hovers down to the oasis if you'd like to-"_

_"No!" Rikku squealed. "Girls only! Sorry, bolt brain, you understand."Gippal shrugged. "Mother, it has been a pleasure, but my friends are expecting me," she said in her most grown up voice._

_With that, Rikku stormed out in a tempestuous yet regal manner. Before slamming the entrance doors behind her, she swore she could hear Brother reprimanding Gippal, "Yna oui cdynehk yd so cecdan? Knucc! (Are you staring at my sister? Gross!)"_

**_So I call you on the tin can phone.__  
We rendezvous by quarter-to,  
And make sure we're alone.  
I think I've found the way for you and I to finally be free_**

Rikku discovered quickly that sex with Gippal was something she enjoyed greatly. The moment sanity returned, she yearned to have it disappear again. However, after the third time Rikku threw herself upon him, Gippal's body began to give out. Rikku laid with her head on his chest, ignoring his sweat tangling in her braids. "One more time…I promise…one more time," she begged.

Gippal looked down at her. His broad arms were wrapped tight around her. "Rikku…I'm done. I am completely useless right now. Do you even remember that we stopped walking so I could rest?" His anger was a shallow act.

But just the sound of the word 'no' set Rikku off. Ideas for remedies poured aimlessly out of her mouth to no avail. Still rambling about ways around his fatigue, she joked, "I'll put on a white mage dress sphere and cure you!"

Gippal smiled with his eye lids going heavy and descending slowly. "You sound absolutely crazy. I don't even know what a dress sphere is!"

Rikku shot up as if she had been shocked. "Gippal! That's it! You're a freaking genius!"

"Good. I'm a genius. Now let me sleep." With the weight of her removed from him, he rolled onto his stomach to rest. He could hear her rummaging through her side pack on the other end of him. "What are you doing?" he mumbled into the ground.

"My dress sphere. My special dress sphere!"

**_When we get there,  
We're gonna fly so far away,__  
Making sure to laugh;  
While we experience anti-gravity.  
Anti-gravity_**

_-Incubus_


	11. If There's A Rocket Tie Me To It

_**WARNING:**_ This is a VERY lighthearted chapter. (I actually hate this chapter because it's so happy. I love anger. Angst. Passion. Torment. I'm a morbid soul!!!) But it's essential for the advancement of the story. I know it's gonna throw you for a loop since last installment was very intimate and personal. I apologize if this throws you off. Smiley face! I wanted one last happy moment before I launched the next chapter because it's gonna start getting serious for the climax. Anyways, don't destroy me in reviews. Also, I've got new fanfics coming up after this but I kind of wanted to know what you guys (my few happy fans) would like to read next. Gundam Wing? Trinity Blood? Or Final Fantasy VIII? Lemme know because they're all in the process and I'd kinda like to know which to pursue next. Lastly, the second flashback is a reference to 'Gippal's Sphere' from the video game. If you haven't seen it, I suggest youtube-ing it. I think the only good one I found has the intro with Yuna and Rin. Just bear with it. Anyways, the point is, the second flashback is set DIRECTLY after that sphere. The _*******_ is where the quoting of the sphere ends and I'm making up what happens after. And of course...I love this song. Enjoy friends!

**_Two weeks later like a surplus reprieve  
I found a hair the length of yours on my sleeve  
I wound it round and round my finger so tight  
It turned purple and a pulse formed inside_**

_Brother slammed the basement door violently behind him before shooting Gippal a deadly glare, "The old man has gone koo-koo! You talk sense into him, please, my sanity depends on it!"_

_Gippal blinked in confusion. He had only just arrived at the remains of Cid's private estate and already he wanted to run screaming back into the desert. However, it wasn't every day the meuh of the Al Bhed asked a lowly garage boy for help. Besides, Gippal was working on opening his own machine-centered faction and he could use a mentor and possibly a founder. Still, Gippal had not seen any of Cid's kin in a long time and the rude greeting alarmed him. Gippal took the steps down to the work room two at a time with waves of memories of his summers spent there drowning him. He remembered the perfume of engine grease and the shop lights that burned his skin while he crammed under a machina. He remembered Marina bringing him and Cid ice water while Rikku spied from the top of the stares, fiddling with her blonde hair._

_"Is that you, one eye?"_

_Gippal even missed the mildly insulting nick-names. "Yeah, grandpa. What's the emergency."_

_Gippal found Cid in the middle of the workroom floor, mounted atop a mechanical beast. "What do ya think? Ain't she a beaut'?"_

_Gippal circled the monstrosity, analyzing the design. It was obviously meant for battle with heavy artillery on either side of its heavy steel frame, and the exposed hydraulic proved its mobility. But the overall design was clunky and ill formed. "What is it?"_

_"Machina MAW," a small muffled voice said from the corner. Shinra crouched down in front of a long scroll of blue prints. "The first Al Bhed Aeon."_

_"Ma?" Gippal mimicked._

_"Yeah, Machina Assault Weapon," Cid confirmed._

_Gippal scoffed audibly, "So you named this heap of bolts Machina Machina Assault Weapon."_

_Cid hopped down from the beast and pulled off his gloves finger by finger. "Yeah, because it sounds like MA…ya know, like MOM, the mother of all machina…it's a play on words, okay!"Obviously Cid had tried explaining the name before. Gippal assumed Shinra had been the first victim of his flawed logic._

_"Calm down, gramps. What does it do?" Gippal asked._

_"It operates on magnets. Look." Cid led his protégé over to his work bench with the main schematics on display. "The user has a calling device that signals the machina using a magnetic field."_

_"Signaled from where?"_

_"Underground," Cid exclaimed. "This thing can compress into the size of a household sphere. Watch."Cid pranced happily over to his creation and flipped a switch on the main control panel. The machine kicked and squealed; its pieces folded and collapsed smaller and smaller, flanking into itself until all that remained was a small steel cube. _

_Gippal returned to circling MAW. "It's too dense. It'll saw tunnels underground which could really do damage if it passed through a fault line or a volcanic vein." As his criticisms continued, the cube burst to life to unfold itself. The legs sprawled out from their compressed form and kicked Gippal back toward the wall. "And apparently it's got a temper," he added._

_"I've thought about the tunneling issue. Once we get one up and running, I'll petition for a base to be put underground. We'll keep hundreds down there and then the cubes will be launched from the base to the user's side to be used in combat."_

_Gippal cocked his eyebrow in disapproval, "You're assuming that this two ton ball of bolts can travel from Bikanel all the way to say…Luca in a short enough time for it to be of use to who ever called it out?"_

_"Oh yeah, I'm gonna rig this baby with the finest in Al Bhed navigational tracking and rocket engineering. We tested it on a non-exploding missile. It made it from here to our test site in Besaid in under a minute."_

_"It would have to break the sound barrier," Gippal stated full of arrogance._

_Cid shimmied his eyebrows. "Pretty neat, huh? It launches above the sky line so the sonic boom doesn't destroy anything below."_

_"No, no, no, no, and no," Gippal said while rolling up the plains. "This is the most ludicrous idea you've ever had in your entire life. Just because you've had one successful test run-"_

_"And twelve unsuccessful," Shinra interrupted._

_"It doesn't mean this thing is gonna work like you think it will."_

**_And I knew the beat 'cause it matched your own beat  
I still remember it from our chest to chest and feet to feet  
The easy silence then was a sweet relief to this hush  
Of ovens, airplanes and of distant car horns_**

Gippal watched as Rikku worked with an animalistic frenzy that rivaled her senile father's. She fiddled relentlessly with a small brass plate. Gippal crawled up next to her and glanced over her shoulder. "So what's the big plan?" he asked coyly. After their intimate moment together, the real threat of danger had subsided as Gippal was convinced he could die happy now.

"It's my garment grid. It's still got my special dress sphere hooked up to it. Unfortunately, unlike Paine and the princess, mine wasn't really some old sacred dress sphere that I happened across during our journey. It was my dad's toss out creation from a while back. I found it in the Oasis. I think he tried to throw it out."

Rikku activated the garment grid and watched as her standard wardrobe or rather her thief dress sphere disappeared in a blue cloud and was replaced by a blue leotard with wires running up the sleeves and legs. Gippal snatched up the brass plate from her and stared at it wildly, "That's all this thing does? A drop of the hat costume change?" But before he could spout another insult, the wall behind him exploded into a mess of stone and dust. Gippal lay flat on his face, seriously contemplating about remaining there.

Eventually, Gippal rolled on his back and peered over his nose at the robotic eyesore. The control panel atop the MAW reacted to Rikku's presence as she hooked some of her wires to the dashboard. The artillery flanks flexed and shut, testing their functionality after months of neglect.

Gippal noticed the exposed hoses and wires hanging from the tail end of the machine. "That crazy bastard actually built this stupid thing?"

The heavy legs of the machina pounded into the ground. Rikiku smiled from her place at the helm, "Well…are you coming or not?"

Skeptic at first, Gippal mounted the MAW behind Rikku. "Alright. Bust us out of here."

**_A fire a fire,  
You can only take what you can carry  
A pulse your pulse,  
It's the only thing I can remember  
I break you don't,  
I was always set to self-destruct though  
The fire the fire,  
It cracks and barks like primal music_**

_Gippal had only been home in Bikanel for an hour and already his life was in more peril than it had been in Crimson Squad training. He wanted to visit his old friends, particularly Rikku, before he went back for the real Crimson Squad trials. The squad had been closely involved with the highly unsuccessful Operation Mi'Hen. He was going to leave that part out of his war stories. The ship carrying him and the other Al Bhed recruits was about to touch down at home when Gippal demanded that the pilot deposit him below. Through his cabin's window, Gippal spotted Sir Auron baking in the desert sun atop a ruined statue. At first, he was gonna leave the guy, a Yevonite guardian had no business looking for Home. That was until a frantic transmission from Home poured over the loud speaker. _

_Followed faithfully by one of the recorders ordered to follow him, Gippal stood a good distance from the aged guardian. "Just got a transmission," he began, "apparently the Guado are conducting a manhunt nearby. Orders are to locate the summoner Yuna and kill her guardians. Maybe you oughta lay low for a bit?"_

_Auron glanced at Gippal momentarily before returning his stare to the boiling sand. "That advice?" he asked._

_Gippal wanted to ask if Rikku was with his party but felt it wasn't his place. He still wasn't sure if this was the Yuna she left to find. He just wanted to get the Yevonites out. If the Guado wanted them dead, they could have him. They were none of his concern. "No. I just don't want you stirrin' them up. The temples are after me too." And anyone else involved with the failed Operation Mi'Hen._

_"Then I apologize in advance," Auron replied._

_"You're fighting? I see. I'm tired of running from Yevon myself, and I have thought about fighting." 'If only to get back at those zealous temple freaks,' he thought to himself. But he knew the meuh wouldn't want him causing trouble. " Huh, I'd probably look like a jackass if I even suggested it."_

_Auron stood and looked Gippal dead in the eye, "Only jackasses can change the world."_

_The desert went silent as Auron walked off into the dunes. "Huh…good call," Gippal told himself._

_"Fryd fyc dryd ymm ypuid?(What was that all about?)"the recorder asked._

_"E ys kuhhy ku belg y vekrd fedr Yevon. Lusehk? (I'm gonna go pick a fight with Yevon. Coming?)"_

_The Al Bhed behind the camera thought genuinely about his job. The pilot asked him in secret to watch Gippal with the Yevonite to make sure no conspiring took place. Word of Rikku traveling with the summoner spread all over Bikanel. But the man had seen Gippal in action and he was convinced that Gippal had the best of intentions. He saw visions of Meuh Cid in Gippal's struggle. "Cuihtc mega vih. (Sounds like fun.)"_

_Gippal laughed to himself, "Jackass." The sound of the man's transmitter blaring cut his joking short. "Fru ec ed? (Who is it?)"_

_"Oh hu! Dra Guado! Drao'na yddylgehk Home! (Oh no! The Guado! They're attacking Home!)"*******_

_"Put that thing down and let's go make jackcasses of ourselves." The recorder dropped the recording sphere and followed his new leader as he charged to the top of a dune to catch up with the guardian. "Hey! I gotta question for you."Auron stopped but didn't turn around. "Do you know Rikku?"_

_"She's travelling with my envoy. But we got separated," he called over his shoulder._

_"I'm gonna go get you guys a ship. I want you and your friends outta here."_

_"What about your friend Rikku?" Auron asked._

_"Protect her. You're a guardian. You're good at that kinda stuff. But I don't wanna see you around here again."_

_**I said I knew the beat 'cause it matched your own beat  
It's become my engine my own source of heat  
The sea between us only amplifies the sound waves  
Every hum and echo and crash paints my cave**_

_Home's destruction had been a paralyzing display. Gippal searched everywhere and couldn't find Rikku, but he set bait out for her. He hoped having the summoner placed down in the sanctum would lead Rikku down there, but things went awry. The Guado got in and kidnapped Yuna before Rikku could reach the basement level of Home. After Gippal received word of the kidnapping, Gippal remembered he had a ship to ready. The closest ship at the time wasn't in the greatest of shape but it would do. Gippal stared at the turbine engine where he once stole a kiss and thought about how the engine would soon burst to life, but little did he know it would only be to carry her away from him again. _

_"Who's coming to pilot this thing?" Gippal shouted to all the men working quickly to fuel it. With Cid at the frontline, people immediately latched to Gippal as their interim leader._

_"Cid!" one of the men replied._

_"Why is Cid getting on this ship? It's for the Yevonites!"_

_Gippal's frustration grew with each passing second. Nothing was going to plan. "I don't know. Cid wants all of us on the ship and we're taking off as soon as he gets here."_

_"All of us? Who's all of us?"Gippal questioned._

_"Any Al Bhed who's still alive."_

_Gippal ripped open the manually operated emergency latch and climbed aboard. He stood in the doorway and let his head fall to his hands. He didn't know where she was. He didn't know where she was going. He didn't know where she had been. His whole life was being shred and all he wanted was to know she was safe. _

_"Let's get this ship going!" Cid shouted, storming across the dock._

_"Wait!" Rikku's voice screeched. _

_Gippal almost ran to her, but a hand yanked him down to the dock floor. "Gippal, we've got orders from Kinok. All Crimson Squad recruits need to get back to Mushroom Rock. The ship's already boarded. We've been looking all over for you."_

_He followed the other Crimson Squad recruit back to their previous ship. He could barely hear Rikku's tantrum. "I'm not getting on any ship. __**All**__ of the Al Bhed are not here!"_

_Cid glared down at his disobedient daughter, "I told you. I don't know where that metal head is. Just get your ass in here!"_

_Tears filled up Rikku's eyes much to her disgrace. Auron knelt down and offered a hand on her shoulder. It was the closest thing to sincere Auron had been since their journey began. "I promised a young man with an eye patch I'd keep you safe. If I left you here, I'd be breaking a promise."_

**_A fire a fire,  
You can only take what you can carry  
A pulse your pulse,  
It's the only thing I can remember  
I break you don't,  
I was always set to self-destruct though  
The fire the fire,  
It cracks and barks like primal music_**_  
-Snow Patrol_

_

* * *

*******_ ... if you haven't read the part at the very top then I'm not telling you what the asterisks mean! Go read it. Then review!_  
_


	12. Castle Bound

Can you believe this story is ALMOST OVER! I can't! It's taken FOREVER :P. Anyways, I hope you guys have been thinking about what I should write next (Gundam Wing, Final Fantasy VIII, Fullmetal Alchemist, or Trinity Blood) You guys are always so thoughtful in your reviews. I appreciate it A LOT! Anyways, listen to the song and tell me if it reminds you of when you first go to Ultemecia's Mansion in FF8. It's a good song though. LOVE IT! Anyways, review for the heck of it, read for the thrill of it. Flashback explanation: When YRP goes after Shuyin in the Farplane, they run into Gippal who's wounded. This takes place right after.

**_Running through,  
I'm running through  
These lands spread far apart  
Is it love? is it love,  
When heroes risk it all?_**

Wakka crammed his overnight bag full of spare blitzballs and armguards with his son bobbing relentlessly in the cradle harnessed to his father's back. "First, I'm gonna yell at mommy, ya. Then, I'm gonna lock mommy in a closest." Wakka looked over at his shoulder to watch Vidina fiddle with the buttons of the holster. "But I'll do it with love, ya. Daddy loves mommy. Got it?"

"Daddy love mommy!" Vidina repeated in a drooly toddler mumble.

Wakka groaned before unhooking Vidini from his back. "This ain't gonna work." He used his bedside knife to cut off one strap and tie it to the other. Then he placed Vidina back in the holster that the toddler's legs went through. He grabbed the end of the spliced strap with his baby leashed at the other end. "Alright, let's go get mommy!"

"Daddy love mommy!" Vidina squawked again.

Wakka had a long walk ahead of him down to the beach to contemplate how angry he would be with his wife. The information came to him in the form of a long game of telephone. Buddy told Shinra where Paine was, who assumed that was where Gippal ran off to. Gippal's name caused Brother's ears to perk up, leading him to pick up the Celcius from Home to go after anyone who was down in that death hole, Via Infinito. When he got to Home, the desert had been deserted except for _dra Luhluinca_, which had been sealed tight. That's when Brother decided something was _certainly_ fishy and he needed Gippal to get to the bottom of it. However, he didn't exactly have an army with just Buddy and Shinra. So he got on the CommSphere network to beg Yuna for assistance. Yuna brought Tidus along with her, much to Brother's dismay. Then, the upcoming mission became locker room gossip, and Tidus let slip that rumors of Lulu being with the Via Infinito group may be true.

Yeah…Wakka was all sorts of angry at this point.

Still, if some sort of major battle was going down, Wakka wanted to know his child was absolutely safe.

Wakka had a lot of time to think about Lulu's actions. Had their lives gotten so boring? They were well off as far as islanders went. Wakka made enough money from coaching and playing blitz to fund their lifestyle. Wakka never really had a family unit to mirror. He was just doing what he thought was right by society: man works, woman stays home with kid. Was she restless? Was their family not enough? Was she only truly fulfilled when she was wielding magic and hunting fiends?

**_But is it true,  
Is it really true?  
There's a doubt set in her heart?  
This love, this burning love  
Could make this hero fall_**

"Do you know where you're going, captain?" Gippal asked. His arms wrapped tight around her hips to keep from bobbing off the mechanical rodeo.

"Away from water." Rikku looked down at the radar on her screen. It couldn't make a map because the global positioning system could not function this far below the surface. The only thing the MAW could read was the amount of water in the air. As long as she kept it below 2%, she wasn't heading toward the Via Purifico water labyrinth…which was a _very_ good thing.

"Shouldn't we be heading up, not out?" Gippal questioned.

"I'm taking you back to Home. Up leads to Via Infinito. I'm coming back for the others. You've gotta get back and make sure the Al Bhed are okay."

Gippal threw up his arms in frustration. "I'm not letting you fight that psycho bitch alone. Besides, in a state of emergency _dra Luhluinca_ is rigged to lock and need a manual override to get open."

"I know," Rikku began. "That's what I'm afraid of. Let me tell you something I've learned about the classic villain. She's gonna want into that underground structure. She's gonna assume I know the password, which I do. And she's gonna say gimme the password or she'll kill someone I love. That's just the way it works."

"How do you know the password?"

Rikku cocked her eyebrow at him, "_Rikku_? C'mon, you couldn't have thought of anything better?"

"Most girls would be flattered."

"When are you gonna learn that I'm not most girls?"

He sneered in response, knowing he had been beat. "Look, a transporting platform. Stop here."

Rikku hit the brakes on the MAW. "Those things are busted."

"Busted machina are my forte, Cid's girl."

Gippal hopped off the MAW and examined the platform. Rikku followed, climbing off the front to inspect with him. "You're gonna need parts. The greatest mechanics in the world can't fix anything without parts."

Gippal pried a strong hand into the artillery flank of the MAW, ripping out a handful of wires in the process. He pulled up the motherboard of the transport and blew off the dust that covered. "The transformer's outta juice. Just gotta power it up." Gippal touched one of the wires hanging from the MAW's cannon pump to the tip of the dead sphere transformer of the teleporter. He felt a quick surge of electricity carry from one end to the other. But it wasn't enough. "Give it some power. I think I've got it."

Rikku hesitantly reached for the cannon's power switch. "You're gonna shock the crap out of yourself."

Gippal shrugged, "You know how many times I've done that in my life." If only to shut his arrogant mouth up, Rikku slammed down on the cannon power. Volts upon volts of raw electricity passed form the MAW, into Gippal, then into the teleporter. For a split second, Gippal was sure he saw the inside of his skull. The numbness at the tip of every one of his body parts subsided. He smoothed his hair back down and rubbed at his now bloodshot eye. "Whew, that oughta wake me up."

"You can be such an ass." Gippal shrugged again. He stood square atop the transporter with his legs a hips distance apart from one another. "Just let me take you to the surface. We don't even know where that thing goes."

"The part number says it goes to teleporter #1."

"Which is where?" Rikku asked with her hands on her hips.

Gippal had to calm his mind because contemplating on how cute she looked at the moment was bad timing. At the same time, the male parts of him required that something be done about how adorable she was with her fists firm on her curve of her hips, with her lips pouting in anger, and her eyes fiery with passion. Gippal grabbed her by the hip and pressed a firm, convincing kiss on her lips. "I don't wanna play the chauvinistic prick card, but you leave me no choice. Get your ass to the surface and find your friends. If I'm nowhere to be found when the smoke clears, find me down here." Gippal released her and readied himself back on the teleporter. "Now, I'm gonna go home and get a shirt and some shoes. And if your villain speech proves true, I'll see you when Terryn comes man-hunting for me."

"Gippal, wait!" Rikku screamed. But it was too late. He was already mouthing the word 'go' at her as he depressed the departing mechanism with his toe. "_Zylgycc!_ (Jackass!)" Rikku cursed to herself while again mounting the MAW.

**_She's castle bound  
Restricted from the sounds  
That assure her I'm ok_**

"_How much is this gonna cost me?" Nooj pondered aloud. He leaned on his cane in his second lieutenant's barrack. _

_Gippal crouched in the corner of the room with a large apparatus with a single rotating sphere in the center. Before that day, Gippal had only installed two sphere oscilla-finders in his life. The first one he ever built was purchased anonymously and installed in the bridge of the Celsius. The second was installed at the personal request of Leblanc. Since then, Gippal fiddled with new ideas on how to make the oscilla-finder operate on a grander scale with a higher output. However, he needed a guinea pig. The idea was presented to both of his war buddies, Nooj and Baralai, but only Nooj agreed. His second lieutenant, Maroda, was in charge of chronicling Spira's past based on the Youth League's research. _

_Gippal shrugged in response to Nooj's question, "You'll owe me dinner. This is more for my benefit than yours."_

_"Second Lieutenant Maroda, reporting for duty, sir."_

_Gippal spun around on his heels and looked at the gentleman who joined Nooj in the doorway. His fingers formed a blade across his chest, the signature salute of the Youth League. Nooj allowed his officer to be casual. The two spoke in a hushed voice as Gippal returned to his work._

_"Well," Gippal said to interrupt the two, "you're all set." Gippal slowly rose to his feet, explaining the design on his way up. "There's no repair manual, so you're gonna have to-" his speech stopped short as his view came into contact with a message board on Maroda's wall. Various proposals, bills, orders…and a photo pinned on top of a letter. Gippal brought a gloved hand up to the photograph. It was a girl on the beach at Kilika wearing a white and yellow two piece bathing suit. Gippal ran his fingers over her hair, her jaw line, her arms. Then, as quick as lightning, he ripped the photo from the board and pounced on Maroda with one hand around the man's neck, shouting, "Where is she!"_

_Nooj fumbled for a minute, taken completely off guard. He dropped his cane and struggled to pull his friend from his lieutenant. "Gippal, calm down!"_

_Maroda stood firm like a statue, neither moving nor speaking. He kept his gaze locked on the furious Al Bhed man. Nooj finally pried Gippal's vice of a grip from Maroda. Everyone was still silent. Gippal's death glare was fixed without hesitation on Maroda. Maroda's silent retaliation was planted and unmoving. Nooj's disappointment in his friend did not waver. _

_"Where is she…"Gippal asked again in a hoarse voice._

_Maroda turned his face from Gippal's seething glare. "I'm keeping her safe from you," was Maroda's cryptic reply._

**_To persevere means  
I'm getting near  
A kiss means I've survived_**

After being lost in a maze for what seemed like hours, Paine and Lulu gave up on trying to find the teleporter on floor 98 and instead searched for the entry way to the next floor. They came across it at the end of a long dark hallway, a sight they had been getting used to as time passed in the pit of Via Infinito.

As their feet hit the ground on floor 99, Lulu was overcome with elation. The teleporter sat alone at the end of a long platform, floating above in all its glowing blue glory. The teleporter represented so much: Hope. Freedom. Vidina. Wakka. Lulu took a step toward the exit, but Paine wrenched her back by the arm. "Don't move. Don't even breathe."

Lulu froze.

Hundreds of tonberries wandered along invisible tracks with their lanterns swaying to and fro. Paine knew the smaller ones weren't much of a hassle, but these tonberries didn't fight fair. These tonberries called for their much larger friends to aid them in battle, and no one survived those battles. The trick was to stay out of the lantern's glow. So long as the women remained in the dark and didn't touch a tonberry, they would survive.

But that was easier said than done.

Paine and Lulu walked in a single file line at a glacial pace past the tonberries. From that point on, they would have to move quickly to get themselves to the platform before the tonberry closest to them turned around and caught them.

Lulu carefully hoisted the warrior up to the platform. Paine gripped at the floor using all the muscles in her core to get herself up the rest of the way. Her body ached from battles and hunger, but the exit was so close. Paine bent over to retrieve her ally. Paine and Lulu gripped each other at the wrist and Paine began to pull. It wasn't that Lulu was particularly heavy, but Paine's body was completely out of energy, and as she tugged with all her might to get the black mage to safety, Lulu's leg waved side to side. A dim, but growing, yellow spot passed over the tip of her boot.

The tonberry hissed and stabbed wildly with his small chef's knife. When he made contact with Lulu's ankle, she screamed in agony and released Paine. The tonberries gathered, the mega tonberry in waiting included, and closed in on the wounded mage. The tonberries hissed in unison, paying homage to their grand friend. The slick green ogre stopped with Lulu at his feet just before the cavern grew dark.

The tiny swaying lights slowly dimmed, leaving the girls in a dreadful darkness, with the eager hissing echoing everywhere. "What's happening!" Lulu called to Paine.

Paine felt around in the shadows, hoping to make contact with her comrade again. "They're going to cast cry in the night! We have to get out of here!" It wasn't the hissing that bothered Paine. It was when the hissing stopped. "Give me your hand!"

"Where are you?" Lulu called to Paine.

They continued to flail and reach until they noticed the silence.

The hissing subsided.

They were in darkness and silence.

Lulu swallowed, hoping all the fear and terror would wash down with it. If she was going to die, she wanted it to be in peace. She concentrated on Wakka's face and the feel of Vidina in her arms. As her body and mind surrendered to her eminent death, Lulu heard a smack followed by the lights returning to the cavern. She opened her eyes to see her savior leaping to catch his blitzball on the rebound.

"Hey, you gotta problem?" he shouted at the mega tonberry.

**_And it's not enough,  
Is it not enough?  
Possibly,  
When you're dying for your love  
Beautifully?  
And hoping is a crutch  
Wait and we'll see_**

_It had been weeks since his outburst at the Youth League Headquarters, but the incident was still fresh in Gippal's mind, and so was the photo. Was it so much to ask to just see her face? The budget plan for the upcoming year sat on his desk, but it didn't mean anything. Everything was just words and numbers with visions of Rikku's face and the sound of her name in between. He had finally got into the swing of being alone, of being without her, and 3"X5" undid all his progress so beautifully._

_Gippal looked up from his desk at the sound of a knock on his door. "Fryd? (What?)" He shouted at the closed door. Silence. "Fru ec drana? (Who is there?)"_

_"Gippal? I have a message from Mevyn Nooj," a voice on the other side explained._

_"Come in," he said while reminding himself to try and be cordial with Maroda. Maroda entered in a prompt manner, dropping the envelope on Gippal's desk and heading straight back to the door. But Gippal sought to play the game on his own terms. "You know he sent you on purpose, right?"_

_"Excuse me?" Maroda asked with his back to Gippal still._

_Gippal beamed at the back of Maroda's head. "Nothing. Hey…if you see Rikku-"_

_"She doesn't wanna hear it," Maroda interrupted, still with his back to Gippal._

_Gippal stood up with both palms flat on his desk. He wasn't going to be taking any romantic criticism from some kid who somehow got lucky with the love of his life. "Yeah? She doesn't wanna hear how I've spent months tossing around in a cold sweat wondering if she's alive? She doesn't wanna hear how I sent out half of Bikanel to go find her? She doesn't wanna hear that I personally walked Spira twice just so I could see her face? She doesn't wanna hear that, huh? Well then, enlighten me, friend. What do you think she wants to hear?"_

_Maroda smirked, "Judging by how many times she's admitted to hating your guts, I think she's waiting to hear your eulogy."_

_Gippal had to scoff to disguise the twisting pain that throbbed in his chest. "Yeah, that sounds like something she'd say. But I wouldn't take it at face value."_

_"Is your ego that out of whack? She doesn't want you. You broke her heart."_

_Gippal's palms clawed back to form fists. "Listen, pal, whatever you think you know, I would forget if I were you. The fact of the matter is she walked out on me. Not the other way around."_

**_But until then_**

The teleporter came to a stop at the beginning of the maze, just as Gippal presumed. However, there were a few surprise visitors waiting for him at the start. Rin paced relentlessly while Nhadala leaned against the wall in frustration. "Well, I guess this makes her collection complete," Gippal mumbled.

Rin chuckled and shook his head, "The guards just went looking for you and Rikku in the halls."

"Yeah, they didn't really want us to die down here. They're just storing us for something far worse. But c'mon, we gotta get outta here. We need to get to Home before the monks do."

Nhadala and Rin groaned in unison. Nhadala could barely keep her head up, "They already attacked Home looking for me and Rin. We locked _dra Luhluinca_ before we were captured."

"How are we doing?" Gippal asked.

Nhadala removed her goggles. Caked in sand, dirt, and blood, Nhadala could hardly speak to voice her terror. "The monks wiped out communications. I held them off long enough to get the doors locked. But there's still at least two hundred workers in Luca."

"She cannot get away with this," Rin began, "surely someone in Luca will notice."

"Unfortunately this is all planned to look like a random fiend attack in Luca. As for Home, I know she's going to want those doors open. We've gotta get back," Gippal explained.

"I'm done, Gippal. I can barely walk."

Rin added, "And I am no warrior. We'll need an army to battle the monks."

**_I will not give up  
I'll make it through tonight  
Will you stay strong?  
Stay with me through the fight?  
If the will's strong_**

_YRP ran off together further into the Farplane, but Rikku couldn't stop wondering. Gippal was injured. She couldn't just leave him there. But she couldn't desert her friends either. Paine noticed the struggle in Rikku's spiral eyes. Then she looked back at Yuna, "You know…you're right, Yuna. We should watch that sphere Gippal gave us." Yuna smiled and nodded. Rikku mouthed the words 'thank you' and waited for the girls to huddle in front of the sphere before heading back to Gippal._

_Rikku wasn't a big fan of the Farplane. Then again, neither were most Al Bheds. It wasn't a place she ever wanted to wander around in alone again. But she couldn't erase the image of Gippal from her mind. He knelt next to his gun, out of breathe, bleeding from a gash in his thigh. If this was her final battle that she might not survive, she didn't want that to be her last memory of Gippal._

_"Gippal!" she called when his tired form came into view._

_Gippal had switched from kneeling to lying down with his gun on his chest and his arms under his head. "Cid's girl, I thought you went after the bad guy."_

_Rikku crouched down next to his leg that rested in a pool of blood. Had she not stopped, there was a good chance that he might have bled to death. She pulled a potion from her belt pack. "I couldn't leave you," she admitted._

_Gippal waved off the remark. "Yeah, well you should have thought about that when you ran off that morning at Bikanel."_

_"I meant I couldn't leave you like this. Now quit being a baby for a second because this is really gonna hurt." Rikku poured the thick liquid contained in the glass bottle across the bleeding flesh and watched as the skin weaved back into itself, closing up the wound. Gippal fought hard to keep from screaming in agony. "Better? Or do I need to kiss it too?"_

_While a tempting proposal, Gippal was still bitter about her running off in Bikanel. He folded his arms across his chest like a child. "Don't flatter yourself, sweetie."_

_"How'd you even end up like this? Aren't you a big shot Crimson Squad guy? Shouldn't you have creamed those fiends?"_

_Gippal glared at her grinning face. "Listen, I'm a lover, not a fighter. I'll leave the fiend creaming to you."_

_"Huh…whatever you say." Rikku came to her feet but could only take a step before Gippal's hand wrapped around her petite ankle. _

_She looked down at his smirking face. With one finger beckoning her, Rikku knelt down, their faces almost touching. "Just thought you could use some big shout Crimson Squad advice…Don't fuck this up." Rikku rolled her eyes._

_But when her eyes came to a standstill, she noticed she was still gazing hopelessly at Gippal. She cursed that familiar throbbing in her chest and the involuntary pouting her lips did. She knew what was coming; she just didn't know who would make the next move. Gippal, on the other hand, enjoyed this torment greatly. He wasn't going to buckle any time soon. So Rikku gently passed her lips over Gippal's. The gesture was as soft as a whisper, but it was just enough to ignite a spark of passion in Rikku. After her first attempt, she put her palms softly on either side of his face and left a hungry kiss burning on Gippal's lips. She wanted it to go further, she really did, but end-of-the-world-about-to-come didn't seem like good timing._

_"Did you kiss me because you still have a thing for me or because we're both about to die?" Gippal asked._

_"Little bit of both."_

**You cannot lose sight of  
What we wanted to be  
But if you do  
Just know that you've got me  
You've got me.**

"What were you thinking!" Wakka shouted while covering Vidina's ears. Lulu could hardly look him in the eye. "What would we have done if you died?"

Lulu offered her arms to Vidina and he escaped his father's grasp. Vidina collided into his mother's bosom and nestled in comfortably. "Wakka, I don't want to think about that right now. I am just glad I am alive, and you should be too."

Wakka sneered at his son, "Don't tell me you're siding with her, ya? Remember the plan?"

"Daddy love mommy!" Vidina chanted happily.

Wakka groaned at his son's treason then joined his wife. He pulled her into a tight hug. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, daddy loves mommy. But mommy is not allowed out of the house, ya."

The island trio stepped onto the bridge of the Celsius and joined the others for some serious battle strategizing. Buddy sat at the helm with Brother at his side, while Yuna, Paine, Tidus, and Shinra scrambled for seating. Paine and Lulu were exhausted but they knew that still had one more battle on their hands. "So…what's the plan?" Paine asked. The ship just started its departure from its hiding spot behind Bevelle. Buddy wanted to park in the sea somewhere so they could stay off the radar.

"We still need to get Baralai out of Via Infinito," Lulu offered.

"And then we blow it up!" Brother shouted. "No more crazy missions down there! Everyone make promise!"

"This was all Rikku's stupid idea," said Yuna.

Brother snapped his head around and continued on a new frenzy, "RIKKU! Where is she!"

Paine shook her head, "I don't know. I thought she was with Gippal."

"GIPPAL! Aaargh, I knew he was up to something. And now Bikanel is falling apart. He is the worst leader ever!"

Buddy stood up on his chair to make a quick announcement, "Politics can wait. We're being followed."

Brother leapt down the stairs and climbed into this captain's chair. The radar had picked up a mobile object hot on their trail. "Turn on the visual!" Brother commanded. Shinra decided that was his queue to help out. He sat down at his spot with all the computers and technical equipment. With a push of a button, he sent out a camera machina. He watched the screen as the camera brought him images beginning from the deck where it launched, to the side of the ship, to their advancing follower. "Well! What is it!"

"It's Rikku!" Paine called.

"And Baralai!" Lulu added.

The group crowded around the screen. Rikku's MAW zoomed under them like a shadow with Baralai gripping Rikku for dear life. "Stop the ship!" cried Brother.

_**An angel will tell you,  
My princess,  
"Triumphs lie in faith"**  
-Monty Are I

* * *

_

Let's have some REVIEWING! Please take a look at the choices up top and tell me what you want me to write next. Thanks, friends.


	13. Say When

So here we are. The grand finale. I hope you loved it. If you've been wondering what people said they wanted to read, it's my new FF8 fic I've been working on. So that's next up. It's a Selpher fic. LOVE IT Anyways, you all have been wonderful fans. Please review one more time.

**_I see you there,  
Don't know where you come from  
Unaware of a stare from someone  
Don't appear to care that I saw you.  
And I want you._**

"Turn this ship around," Rikku commanded. "We're gonna make that place burn like a Bikanel campfire cookout."

The ship's crew was in a frenzy working to get the mission over with as quickly as possible and prevent the radical Yevonites from committing the unthinkable. Buddy jumped into the navigator's seat. Shinra got comfortable at the information deck. Rikku hopped into the second navigator's seat. The rest waited with bated breath for Brother to take his seat as captain of the Celsius. But he couldn't move. His spiral eyes shot daggers at his younger sister. Although the mission at hand was pertinent, he wanted answers…he deserved answers.

Everyone remained silent on the floor of the bridge waiting for their leader to make the first move. He had been mostly quiet, attempting to yell but catching the words on his tongue as if they weren't quite the right words. So everyone waited patiently.

Brother stopped his endless pacing then asked, "One question…why?"

Rikku shrugged, "Why I left?"

"Why anything!"

Rikku could only shrug again, unsure of where to go with her own words. There were so many reasons. She looked out the front window of the Celsius, busily searching for words to make it clear to Brother and everyone else…herself included. Outside, the clouds balanced in the sky around them. Rikku longed for the days when she could sit and watch the clouds zip past her because she was on mission. The ship's lack of motion frightened her, as if the ship poised to fall out of the sky at any moment. She wondered if she could survive the fall into the ocean below.

"I was…angry," she started, "I was confused. I was scared. I was…I was…heart broken."

"Heartbroke?" he asked in his broken language. "Gippal?" She nodded. Brother groaned. "I hate that flashy bastard! …Do you…love him?"

"Yes!" All the remaining passengers answered.

"I didn't ask you!" He crouched down before his younger sister. "Rikku…do you really love him?"

"Yes," Rikku said, "very much."

Brother groaned and swore. He hated the thought of them together, but it was inevitable. "I want you to know _vydran_ (father) and I would have done anything to make you happy."

**_What's your name,  
Because have to know it.  
You let me in and begin to show it  
We're terrified because we're heading straight for it  
Might get hit._**

_Brother, on one of his various rampages, shoved through the crowds of workers looking for the familiar bald head of his father. As usual, Cid was found crouched down in front of blue prints, studying his protégé's design for a grandiose museum of sorts to honor Al Bhed history. The floor had already been set and the workers now busily erected walls to contain all the wonderful treasures. Brother ignored all this. He had some yelling to get to and nothing would deter him._

_"Vydran! (Father!)" he hollered across the crowded floor._

_Cid groaned, knowing full well who the voice belonged to. Without glancing up from his drawing, Cid beckoned for his son with wave of a gloved hand. Brother stomped over, but Cid put up his pointer finger, hushing his son for a split second. Cid mumbled something about the cost of golden cactuar sand then looked over at his son. "Famm? (Well?)"Cid commonly used his native tongue with his son who refused to learn the language of the other Spirans. Frankly, Cid enjoyed their language, it was good for business. Plus, Brother had a hard enough time understanding coherent thoughts, let alone ideas that weren't in his own language._

_"So cecdan ec eh muja fedr y veaht. Fa cruimt hud cdyht vun ed. (My sister is in love with a fiend. We should not stand for it.)" Brother folded his tattooed arms across his tattooed chest, glaring down at his aging father. _

_"E ymnayto ghuf ypuid Gippal. E tu hud caa yho ryns eh bibbo muja. (I already know about Gippal. I do not see any harm in puppy love.)"_

_"Bibbo muja! (Puppy love!)"Brother scoffed. "Drao yna rayt ujan raamc vun aylr udran. Luhcaxiahdmo, drao pudr yld vyn duu unnacbuhcepma.(_ _They are head over heels for each other. Consequently, they both act far too irresponsible.)"_

_Cid stood and wiped grease from his hands on the side of his jumpsuit before placing two gloved hands on each of his son's shoulders. "Mecdah (Listen)," he began, "drec ryc paah vunsehk muhk pavuna. Pid E femm damm oui dra cysa drehk ouin sudran dumt sa frah E vencd hudelat dras. Yc kenmc knuf ib drao pakeh muugehk vun y syda dryd lyh nabmyla draen vydran. Cusauha cdnuhk. Cusauha tynehk. Mega y ghekrd. Yht cehla ran vydran ec dra meuh cra haatc cusauha bnaddo ysywehk. E lyhhud yknaa dryd Gippal ec dryd syh. Pid ev ed'c fru cra lruucac, fa ryja du cibbund ran yht ruba vun dra pacd. (__this has been forming long before. But I will tell you the same thing your mother told me when I first noticed them. As girls grow up they begin looking for a mate that can replace their father. Someone strong. Someone daring. Like a knight. And since her father is the meuh] she needs someone pretty amazing. I cannot agree that Gippal is that man. But if it's who she chooses, we have to support her and hope for the best.)"_

**_Hear the song playing on the background  
All alone but you're turning up now  
And everyone is rising to meet you, to greet you_**

Gippal glared with his good eye at the pathetic allies before him. He and Rikku were going to fight until their last breath, but Nhadala and Rin had already given up all hope.

"C'mon guys," he pleaded, "we can't let Yevonite lunatics tear up Home again." They didn't even budge. Gippal tried to imagine what Cid would do at this point. He could motivate. He Could unify. Gippal's skills were far less impressive. "Listen, I know this is partially my fault. Hell, it's all my fault. I should have never trusted that psycho with my peoples' lives. But I need you to trust me with yours. The radical Yevonites have tried to take everything. They can't have my pride and Home is just as much my pride as the blood in my veins and in yours and in every Al Bhed."

Rin softened a little. His spiral eyes watered slightly in response to Gippal's exposure. Rin watched Gippal's broken eye. He had never seen his meuh without an eye patch. Gippal seemed so naked.d No eye patch. No chauvinistic façade. Only his love for protecting his people remained.

Rin finally spoke, "I never thought I'd see the day Home was rebuilt. But you changed that. I used to wonder what Cid saw in you, what Rikku saw in you, what anyone saw in you. But you're a knight. You have honor and pride and duty. And you're willing to risk everything to defend it."

"But it's not about that," Nhadala mumbled. "Rikku's defending on you, isn't she?" Gippal nodded silently. "Well then, what's the plan?"

Gippal gathered his thoughts quickly to formulate a scheme. "Bad guys come in, we kick their asses. Plain and simple. One of 'em's gotta have a key on them.

Rin shook his head, "I am no warrior."

Gippal shook his fist at the merchant, "Ever use one of these. Just cock it back and send it flying."

**_Turn around and you're walking toward me  
I'm breaking down and you're breathing slowly  
Say the word and I will be your man,  
Say when._**

"_Vydran!_ (Father!)"Rikku remembered. "We've gotta blow up Via Infinito!"

"She's right," Baralai added. "That's why we tracked down your ship."

Buddy quickly set course for Bevelle underground. If they brought the ship underwater, they could remain undetected and blow up Via Infinito from below. There was just one problem. "What about Gippal. Isn't he still down there?" Buddy asked.

With much chagrin, Lulu commented, "We don't have much time if Terryn is planning on letting Cid loose on the workers or attacking Home."

Rikku crawled up to the captain's chair to man the artilary. "Terryn won't head for Home until she's got Gippal or me." The ship dove into the calm ocean, forcing an energy of raw anger into the serenity below. "Besides, Gippal's already escaped."

"You can't be so sure," Baralai added. "Paine and I were Crimson Squad members with him. He can get a little…distracted.

"We've already concluded that he only gets that way when it comes to me. Now, are we in this together or what?" Everyone stared at one another. Tidus was ready to fight again. He spent too long waiting to reborn from the fayth. Lulu was, of course, ready, much to Wakka's dismay. But if Lulu was in, Wakka _definitely_ was in. The same went for Tidus and Yuna. Brother, Buddy, and Shinra needed to see Cid and Gippal alive or Bikanel would fall apart. Baralai needed to look like a good guy for politics' sake. He couldn't have renegades running around and soiling Yevon's good name. That left Paine, who silently decided Rikku sincerely needed her help. "I'll take the silence as a yes. Just get ready for a bumpy ride. Get equipped now because after I finish of Via Infinito, I'm heading straight to Luca to save the workers."

"What about Home?" Brother asked.

"Gippal's gonna take care of that one. I know you don't like the sound of that, but we gotta save Pops. Let's just hope Gippal gets to Terryn before I do, because I'm gonna massacre her limb from limb."

**_Say when  
And my own two hands will comfort you  
Tonight, tonight  
Say when  
And my own two arms will carry you  
Tonight, tonight_**

_The four Crimson squad recruits had been enjoying the relaxing night. All the recruits had been invited to a grand black and white party at the mansion that once belonged to a master of Yevon. The house had been purchased and was in the process of being renovated by a wealthy entrepreneur who went by the name Leblanc. What a business woman wanted with warriors, Gippal couldn't say. All that concerned him was free booze and women to get his lonely mind off Rikku._

_Gippal didn't particularly care for tuxedos either. The Al Bhed didn't exactly dress up. The yevonites had a style all their own, the Spiran tux belonging to it. The jacket was more like a robe with wide sleeves and a draping, buttonless front. The sleeves had the symbols of the aeons stitched in irredescent white. His tie was a bow with long ties trailing down above his navel and the loops startched open. Instead of the traditional four hole button closing the shirt, or zippers, something Gippal could understand, there were hook and eye buttons. The slacks, luckily, were standard._

_The three men all matched perfectly. Paine wore a long black dress, sleevless, that wrapped around her neck and fell into cascading panels of embroidered cloth down her back._

_None of them had a date, but Nooj soon would become quite popular and liquor would bring together an unlikely pair for one night only. Gippal would remain alone that night despite a few willing takers._

_At the top of the stairs, a curvaceous short-haired blonde in a gravity defying white dress glided down the hallway to where the group entered. The whole back of her dress gathered into a billowing, beautiful mess of ruffles. She pulled a long fan from one of those ruffles. "Hello, loves. I'm so glad you could attend."She extended the back of her hand to Nooj. He placed her gentle palm in his and offered a kiss to the smooth flat side of the back of her hand. Gippal would have shook it vigorously. The formal gig wasn't his forte. "Nooj the Undying. I've heard a lot of good things about you." She put her head down and glared over her nose, "And a lot of naughty, naughty things as well. I guess you could say I'm your biggest fan."_

_"I'm honored. Now, if I may be so bold, what's the occasion." Nooj as always quick to get right to the point._

_Leblanc lead them into the dining hall. They sat together at her long wooden table decorated with the finest foods Spira offered. "Surely __you've__ heard of me, Gippal." Gippal shook his head. She gasped in shocked. "The sphere viewers that your people produce, my family and I backed the idea. It made both my family and the Al Bhed very, very wealthy."_

_"You're __that__ Leblanc?" Gippal shouted. She nodded. _

_"I'm the only Leblanc anyone should ever care about. But what good are sphere viewers without spheres. Let me get straight to the point, I need sphere hunters. I'm starting a syndicate of sorts and I'll need all the man power…or powerful men I can get. How about it, loves, any takers?"_

_"You asked Crimson Squad recruits to come here so you could ask them to quit?" Nooj began. "You must be out of your mind. Some of us gave up all we had to get into the squad."_

_"Trust me. The rewards will be much more plentiful." Leblanc stood to leave, "Now Nooj, I'd love to hear the details of your infamy in my…private quarters."_

**_We're coming close and then even closer  
We bring it in but we go no further  
We're separate.  
Two ghosts in one mirror, no nearer_**

The plan to jump the guards worked perfectly, but there was no time to enjoy their freedom. Nhadala, Gippal, and Rin searched every hallway and corridor trying to find the exit, all the while kicking ass and taking names. Rin went from merchant to mercenary in a very short amount of time and Nhadala proved to be quite the banshee.

A dark skinned head poked around a wall and hoarsely whispered to Gippal and his companions, "Follow me." Gippal's ears perked up. It was Maroda. Rin and Nhadala were already inching toward the vested man, but Gippal was far more skeptic. Him and Maroda weren't exactly buddies. But Maroda waved and called again, "Quick, before the guards come. I'll show you the way out. I have a ship waiting outside."

Gippal caught up with Maroda, bringing the other two with him. As the snuck past hordes of guards on the look out, Gippal was finally breaking a sweat. Beating up a bunch of bald guys had been no problem to following the guy who stole his woman. Maroda lead them through a trap door leading to the rear patios of Bevelle. Once safe, Gippal requested answers. "How the hell you'd know we were down there? Where's Rikku? Did she make it out?"

"Rikku's brother overrided the frequencies screaming about an emergency. I helped get everyone out of Djose before he blew it up and –"

"He did what!" Gippal shouted.

"Hey, it was either that or wait for the Yevonites to do it," Maroda scoffed. "Listen, I don't know where Rikku is, I don't fully know what's going on. All I know is I've got a ship and a one way ticket to Bikanel if you guys want it."

Gippal studied Maroda's face for truth and sincerity. He realized, regretfully, the true meaning behind Maroda's rescue mission. "You thought Rikku was here, didn't you?"

"Listen, Gippal. I love Rikku very much. And I know I could treat her better than you ever could, but right now, it's not about that. And if you're willing to sacrifice your people so you can sit around a fight this out over who's the better man, than it's clear who the winner is."

**_Later on if it turns to chaos,  
Hurricane coming all around us  
See the crack, pull it back from the window,  
You stay low  
Say when_**

_Rikku stared across the docks hoping to squint hard enough to see Bikanel, to see Gippal. But from her perch on the Kilikan docks with Maroda by her side, it was pointless. She could feel his eyes burning holes in every part of her. She glanced over to study his gaze. Was it lust? Was it love?No, it was something completely different. Something she hadn't seen since Gippal. It was confusion. Maroda watched her, trying to figure out what she was thinking._

"_Rikku," he started. There was a tinge of pain in his voice. "what are you thinking about?" Rikku smiled and winked, playing coy or dumb, she didn't know. "Who are you thinking about?" he asked this time._

_Rikku froze. She felt so transparent. She found herself becoming defensive, "He hurt me…but lately being with you, I think maybe I hurt him."_

"_What do you mean?"_

_Rikku could sense a strange maturity in her voice that scared her. "It's nto that I don't like you, Maroda. I just know my heart belongs somewhere else or with someone else. And I see you struggling to please me when I'm already off to the next thing. Fighting sin…fighting Vegnagun. Maybe…I loved him and hurt him and…no."Rikku slapped her hands flat on the wood of the docks. "No, no, no, no. I can't resent him more. To think he called me not marriage material. He's the one who can't even do his own laundry."_

_Rikku began to let her resentment get the best of her. The combination of Gippal thoughts and frustration always put her in the same mood. She prowled over onto Maroda's lap and grinned devilishly. Maroda looked away, "Under other circumstances, I'd find this very appealing. But this unrequited love stuff isn't something I need. I'm stable enough for an empty romance."_

"_What?"_

"_Do you even listen to yourself when you talk?" Maroda asked harshly. "You're still very much in love with him."_

**_Say when  
And my own two hands will comfort you  
Tonight, tonight  
Say when  
And my own two arms will carry you  
Tonight, tonight_**

Rikku had never seen anything as beautiful as the explosion that destroyed the hell hole that was Via Infinito. It rumbled throughout the ocean and the interior of Bevelle couldn't have been more psychotic. There were prisoners escaping left and right and now their torture chamber was exploding underneath them, all the while, both Yevonite leaders were missing, the Yevonite extremist leader and the New Yevon leader.

But now the ship was landing in Luca. As soon as the ship docked, Rikku ran for the elevator. The quicker she could find her father, the quicker she could end this. Her team followed, brandishing their weapons for the fight.

Inside the skeleton-like struncture, blood, screams, and corpses filled the halls. "We're too late," Yuna said hopelessly. Rikku knew she meant it sincerely. With the amount of carnage, it was hard to believe that anything survived.

"C'mon," Rikku said while unsheathing her knives. She gripped them firmly, her biceps flexed as she did. "I'm heading down, you can follow me if you wish. Just don't kill any lupes."

Rikku shot down the scaffolding like a monkey, jumping from pole to pole until she hit bottom. She knew it wouldn't be long before whatever monster lurked below found her. She had been berserked a few times. It felt like spiders on the brain. Everything went red.

A low growl sounded from behind her. "Dad…"was all she could whisper.

She spun around and saw the rabid beast. Blood and froth dripped from his fangs in waterfall-like drops. His fur was tangled with the entrails of her brethren. His spiral eyes were cross eyed with rage and confusion. The red glow of the beserk spell was in a state of constant generation. Whoever cast it knew their spells.

"Dad! It's me, Rikku! Your baby girl!"

The beast growled low in response.

"Dad! You have to stop!"

She stood firm, arms spread, staring deeply.

But he continued to growl and gnash.

"Rikku, move!" Yuna's voice called. But she couldn't. She couldn't believe her father would do this to her, to anyone. The lupe fell on top of her, surely crushing some bones, but the red glow had faded. Rikku caught a glimpse of Yuna with her hand on one of her old rods. "I cast esuna. He should be fine."

Rikku could barely breathe with the weight of her father crushing her. He slowly backed off and nuzzled into her side. Rikku writhed in pain, "Yeah…that's broken."

Brother finally caught up with the group. "_Vydran_ (Father)?" With his head down in shame, the lupe approached his son. He nudged up on Brother's hand. But Brother ripped away and punched him on the nose. "Look what you've done!"

Rikku struggled to her feet, but collapsed to the ground. Yuna could cast cure, but it couldn't mend bones. "We've gotta…send him. We've gotta…get him back to normal." Blood flooded her mouths and splashed when she coughed between words.

Yuna and Baralai, who had just arrived, both shook their heads. "Sending souls won't change him back…it'll just transport him to the Farplane." Yuna offered a hand on her shoulder, something Rikku hadn't expected. "But I don't think this kind of magic is reversible. If he's a summon…then his body already belongs to the fayth."

Rikku clenched her ribs with a grimy hand. "What if we found the fayth."

"A body must die to become a fayth," Baralai stated.

It dawned on Rikku slowly. Or maybe she knew it all along. Still, she didn't want to admit the unthinkable. Instead, she let out an ear piercing shriek that echoed all around the party. The beast sat down next to her and nuzzled into her again, this time avoiding her side.

Brother dammed the tears to keep strong for his sister. "Where is the fayth? That's where we'll send him."

"Wherever he was most attached in life," Yuna said.

**_Come across you lost and broken  
You're coming to but you're slow in waking  
You start to shake.  
You still haven't spoken,  
What happened_**

"Round 'em up," Terryn commanded. The bald headed men shoved the Al Bhed men to the ground with sacks covering their faces. "One of you knows how to get in there. Now, dammit, I'm losing my Yevon-given patience." The Al Bhed men remained diligent in their silence. But Terryn fired a gun, trying to shake their confidence. The bullet burrowed into the forehead of one the men. His body dropped to the sand, arms still bound and head still covered.

He was a man with a name.

A face.

A family.

The other Al Bhed men prayed that his last thought was that he protected them.

"There's four more of you freaks. One of you knows how to open that door!"

"I know how," Gippal shouted from his approaching hover. He was back in his normal clothes with a few Al Bhed at his side, along with Nhadala, Rin, and Maroda. It was time for some serious damage.

"Kill him!" Terryn ordered. Her composure finally dispersed. The hatred oozed from every pore in her body. She fired her gun four more times, each bound man falling in a pool of his own blood in the sand.

The legion that came with Gippal jumped from their hovers and pounced on the Yevonite soldiers. Gippal flung himself from his craft, landing straight onto Terryn. Unfortunately, she was a lot stronger that he imagined. They wrestled back and forth for the gun. Gippal would be happy enough just getting it out of reach. He heard shots being fired and pray it was his team doing the shooting.

Terryn gripped Gippal by the wrists and pressed all her weight on him, grinning maliciously down at him all the while. "I'm gonna enjoy what I'm about to do to you and all your people for that matter."

The next sound from her mouth was a cry of sheer pain. The lupe's bloody teeth pulled out from her side before chomping back into her neck, picking up Terryn by the head like a rag doll. The lupe shook its head furiously until he heard Terryn's neck snap in it's mouth.

Gippal rubbed his wrists, soothing the pain Terryn left. His men took the chains from the fallen men and locked up the Yevonite soldiers. He smirked at the lupe, "What took you guys so long." The lupe growled. Gippal returned to his old swaggering ways, as if he hadn't just been saved from a gruesome death. "Where's Rikku?"

**_They're coming back and you just don't know when  
You want to cry but there's nothing coming  
They're gonna push until you give in,  
Say when_**

"Rikku," Gippal called to her. She was knelt in front of her mother's grave, surrounded by machina ruins. As he drew closer, he noticed two things. The first being a grand circle near the grave with the head of a giant lupe inside with one spiral eye. The second thing he noticed was the huge gash across Rikku's bare ribs. He ran to her side.

Rikku didn't look as he wrapped her up in his arms. She, instead, closed her eyes and nuzzled into his chest. It had been many hours since she last saw Gippal, but already her heart had grown heavy, calling to him. His arms felt warm and safe about her. "I asked the others to leave me here…my father…he won't live…past today."

Gippal felt wet tracks trailing down his shirt. He held her tighter. "I missed you…I was worried about you."

"I don't know what to do anymore, Gippal. I can save the planet. I can save nameless people. But I can't save those closest to me."

Gippal put his hands on either side of her face and bent in. He kissed her gently. "You don't have to save anybody. _I'm_ your knight."

**_Now we're here and it turns to chaos  
Hurricane coming all around us  
They're gonna crack,  
Don't you back from the window  
You stay low_**

-The Fray


End file.
